Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Dharma and adharma are described as substances because they exist as the neutral and conditional causes respectively of motion and rest, and are non-corporeal but homogenous-whole in their constitution. They are simply passive, inactive agents or media for the other substances to move or stop, as the case may be. In no other philosophical system are these terms used in this sense and merely convey ethico-religious ideas, wherefore Dr. Jacobi holds this peculiarity of Jainism as a mark of its antiquity. The characteristic of ākāśa is 'to give space' it is its nature to accommodate everything. The part of it which accommodates, or is inhabited by, the other five substances (līva, pudgala, dharma, adharma and kāla) is, therefore, relative and designated lokākāśa, whereas the empty space which extends infinitely beyond the physical world (loka or lokākāśa) is called alokākāśa. The äkāśa is thus all-pervading and eternal, but unlike some other systems Jainism does not hold ‘sound' to be a quality of ākāśa.
The kala (time) is not one and all-pervading, but has a sort of atomistic constitution and is, therefore not included in the pañcāstikāya, the five categories of indivisible composite and homogenous-whole substances which the others are. It helps the substances to undergo charges and transformations which they are doing all the time. The practical dimensions of time, like the second, minute, hour, day, month, and year, are mere deductions of the real substance that kāla is. The ultimate, smallest, indivisible unit of akaśa (space) is called pradeśa, of pudgala (matter) aņu or paramāņu, and of kala (time) samaya.
The pudgala, so called because it is amenable to constant composition and decomposition, is inanimate matter, concerete, gross, commonplace, perceptible by the senses and possessed of sensory qualities (like touch, taste, smell and colour) to its last unit, the paramāņu. The world (loka) is full of material