Samayasara

Author(s): Kundkundacharya, Jethalal S Zaveri
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 22

Introduction/Premble to Chapters I and II
1. Jain Metaphysics
According to Jain metaphysics, the REALITY consists of six eternal (indestructible) substances which constitute the cosmos. They are Space (Ākāśa), Principles of Motion and Rest (Dharma and Adharma), Psychical Order of Existence (Jiva), Physical Order of Existence (Pudgala) and Time (Kāla). Each of the above substances or dravya is always associated with certain intrinsic and unalienable qualities (gunas). Again each substance and its quality must exist in some determinate state or form. This is its mode of existence-paryāya. The mode is subject to constant change, that is, a new mode continuously replaces the old one. It should be carefully remembered that the creation and destruction are relevant only to modes and not to substance, i.e., the substratum of qualities and modes.
Thus, the Jain concept of reality excludes both a permanent and unchanging real of Parmenides and also the mere eternal flux of Heraclitus. That is, it avoids the Scylla of fluxism and the Charybdis of illusionism. An unchanging permanent (such as Puruşa of the Sāmkhya-Yoga system) and mere change without substratum (as fluxist Buddhist) are unreal or absurd self-contradicting concepts. The Jain concept of reality reconciles both these aspects and combines them into an organic unity. It corresponds to the modern concept of organic development rather than its Hegelian aspect.
It is not difficult to see that the dynamic constitution of the substance, basically, flows from its unalienability from its own infinite qualities/attributes.
It is the richness of content that makes the Jain concept of pure and perfect state of the soul-Siddhahood, as we shall presently see-as against the nihilistic attitude of Vedānta etc. which insists upon a qualityless (nirguana) existence as the Ultimate Reality. It is this unalienable unity that exists between the substance and its