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CHAPTER III
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of a single cause producing two different effects, which will be in conflict with the Jaina faith
COMMENTARY If what is taken to be true from the vyavahāra point of view, that the atma is the agent and enjoyer of his own karmas, is also taken to be true from the absolute point of view, it will lead to a metaphysical error ātma is a chetana dravya of thinking substance, karma-pudgala, karmic materials, are as chetana dravya,non-thinking substance The Jaina faith is distinctly a dualistic one liva and pudgala, thinking thing and non-thinking thing, are entirely distinct from each other, intransmutable one to the other and completely self-subsistent If the Self, as an agent, is capable of producing modification not only in himself but also in karmic materials, operating identically in the same manner as upadana karta, then this causal agent must be credited with a potency to produce entirely two different effects and this doctrine of causation is what is called dukriyaāvāda—the doctrine which is rejected by the Jaina philosophy According to Jaina metaphysics, two distinct and conflicting effects cannot be produced by identically the same cause not, conversely, can the identically same effect be produced by two entirely distinct causes The attempts to derive both chetana and achetana entities from the same cause would result in making the original cause in itself to be either chetana or achetana If it is identified with the achetana effect, the chetana Self will cease to be If it is identified with the chetana entity, then matter achetana will cease to be In either case it would be a metaphysical error The Vedānta doctrine which tries to derive both the Self and the external objects from the same source of chetana dravya, Ātman or Brahman, must end in māyavāda, which condemns objective reality as unreal and illusory
Conversely the attempt to derive the Self from the operation of the achetana matter as the Chārvākas do, must enthrone the physical world in the sovereignty of reality and dismiss the ātma, chetana dravya, as ficticious and unreal Neither of the conclusions is acceptable to the Jainas
