Religion and Culture of the Jains

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

Page 56

RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Substances, Qualities and Mode The six categories, substances or reals (jīva, pudgala, dharma, adharma, ākāśa and kāla) are called dravyas, and the differentia of a dravya is sat that is, existentialism. These dravya or irreducible constituents being themselves existential give an existential character to the universe. They are not the figments of somebody's imagination, but are the outcome of a comparehensive analysis of the subjective and objective existence. The sat (reality) is characterised by the trio of origination (utpāda), destruction (vyaya) and permanence (dhrauvya, that is, it is both permanent (nitya) and impermanent (anitya) at one and the same time.
Again, dravya is made up of guņas (qualities) and paryāyas (modes or modifications). It is the substratum of qualities and modes, which are its determinates and on which its own intelligibility depends. Divested of its qualities and modes, the substance would become merely an abstraction, a void. Moreover, the substance (dravya) is not immutable, but is subject to constant, incesant change in the qualities and modes with which it is endowed, or of which it is made up.
Origination and destruction refer to modifications of qualities on the permanent bedrock of substance. It is only the permanence that changes, for in the absence of permanence change is absolutely meaningless. At the sarne time, no amount of change in the qualities or modes of a substance can ever convert it into another substance: soul can never become non-soul, or vice versa, the same being true of all the other dravyas. Dr. Upadhye calls it 'a peculiarly common sense view', which is deduced from such patent and handy illustrations as that of a ring coming into existence after a bangle is melted and reshaped, the gold remaining there all the time as a permanent substance. The true import and value of this common sense view becomes evident when it is studied in the light of the Vedāntist idealism, on the one hand, which holds that gold