Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics that Dharma, Adharma and Akāśa are all non-psychical substances, co-extensive, formless and co-incident too; hence they are one, if considered from this point of view; but their functions being essentially different, they must be held to be distinct substances. As the author of the Pancāstikāya-Samaya-Sāra says:
धम्माधम्मागासा अयुद्धभूदा समानपरिमाना। पूरगुलद्धिविसेसा करन्ति एगत्तमन्नशुं। १०३।।
PLATO'S THEORY OF SPACE
What then is Space? Plato differed from the Pythagoreans who identified it with the subtle primeval matter; nor did he feel inclined to connect it with Motion. Plato's theory of Space, no doubt, is far from clear. He likened Idea to the father and the sensible things which according to him were image of the Idea, to children. He likened Space to the mother which is impregnated by the Idea, so to say, and which gives birth to the things of our experience. But he does not explain how Space is impregnated by the Idea and how the sensible things are produced. Some have found the principle of absolute idealism in the above metaphorical utterances of Plato. It is said that according to Plato, Space is the mother" through which the absolute Idea realises itself in the finite phenomena of our experience. Understood in this way, the Platonic doctrine of the Idea as the father, Space as the mother and the Finites as the offspring seems to have a remarkable similarity with the theory propounded in the Bhagavad-Gītā:
मम योनिमहद्बदए तस्मिन् गर्भ दधाप्यहम। संभव: सर्वभूतानाम् ततो भवति भारत ।। सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तय, मूर्तयः संभवन्ति या :
तामां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रदः तिपा। Mahat Brahma, O descendant of Bharata, is the uterine
organ of genesis (alfa). I cause impregnation in it. All objects are generated thereby. Mahat Brahma is the uterine organ of genesis and I, the germ-giving