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Jaina Conception of Space and Time
15.
Some might argue against this Jaina position as follws : if a substance requires another substance to exist in, then akuša itself being a substance will also require some another substance and this substance in its turn will require the third substance to exist in and so ad infinitum. If to avoid this contingency the Jainas were to say that akaśa does not require another substance to exist in, then they should apply the same logic in the case of other substances also. Thus the conception of akaśa as a universal container is self-destructive.14 Again, the Jaina view that akaśa contains itself is beset with another difficulty, viz kartykarmavirodhadoşa. It is a rule that in a particular act the subject and the object cannot he one and the same. However sharp a knife may be, it cannot cut itself. However expert an acrobat may be in the art of acrobatics he cannot stand upon his own shoulder. So, akaśa cannot contain itself.
The Jainas overcome these difficulties as follows: Not all substances require another substance to exist in. The less extensive substance is cont. ained in the more extensive one. This is the special relation that obtains between the container and the contained. Hence, if we conceive a substance infinite in extent and maintain that there is no substance more extensive than it - not even as extensive as it , then this conception logically compels us to conceive this substance as requiring no other substance to contain it because there is no substance more extensive than it to contain it. Akuša is such a substance.15 Regarding karlykarmavirodhadosa, it does not arise because the function of akaśa to contain substances is really passive 16 Moreover, that akaśa contains itself is simply a positive statement of the fact that akaśa being of the infinite and the highest extension cannot be contained in any other substance.
Can akuša function as a condition of motion ? The Jaina answer to this question is emphatic 'no'. They contend that if it be also the condition of motion, then wherever there is akaśa, there should be chance of motion ; but neither a single Jiva, nor a single body nor a single atom could step beyond the limit of uiverse (loka), though there is akala beyond the univere. If akaśa were credited with the function of assisting motion,
14 आकाशस्य क आधार इति ? आकाशस्य नास्त्यन्य आधारः। स्वप्रतिष्ठमाकाशम् । यद्या
काशं स्वप्रतिष्ठम् , धर्मादीन्यपि स्वप्रतिष्ठान्येव । अथ धर्मादीनामन्य आधारः कल्प्यते, आकाशस्याप्यन्य आधारः कल्प्यः । तथा सत्यनवस्थाप्रसङ्ग इति चेत् । सर्वार्थसिद्धि,
15
o 99., 147migracFaxaftari sopara 27119TÅT Ferraforystal Faferfare 4. PR TTTTFIT, 38. 'Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics' (H.S. Bhattacharya), p. 85-86
16
