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Vol. XX, 1996
HERETICAL CONCEPTION OF...
69
consists of beings of one sense-organs to five sense-organs and their existence, is eternal. There is no limit or duration to their existence. It is not produced from time to time and exists in the past, present as well as future. It is not produced out of atoms and hence it is eternal. It is unlimited in the sense its vastness cannot be estimated. According to Vyasa the author of Puranas who propounded the later theory the world is limited in the sense that its geographical vastness is limited to seven islands and three spheres. It is eternal in the sense that it is ever existent in time.
According to some Brähamanas and Śramanas the universe is created or produced from the 'primordial egg' and that He (Brahman) created the phenomena. Explaining this verse the commentator points out that according to some ignorant Brähmanas and Sramaņas the universe was produced by the 'primordial egg' as stated in the Brahmandapurana. According to them from the explosion of the primevl egg all the diverse phenomena both sentient and insentient have come into existence10.
II.
Jain criticism:
The Jain commentator Silänka refutes the Brāhmaṇical conception of the creation and governance of the world by the gods. The Jains criticize the heretics who contend that they possess the knowledge of the truth and are unaware that the creatures in the world do not know anything". Explaining the verse the commentator points out that according to Jain critic, all these thinkers referred above variously conceived the origin of the universe but in fact they do not know the truth of the object because the world is eternal and does never perish. The Jains while refuting the above theories hold that the proposition "world is created by god" is not valid because in order to create the world the god himself should exist prior to it. In the absence of the former the latter cannot take place. There is no valid means to postulate such god. If it is argued that it is self-made why cannot the universe be conceived as self-made devoid of him? If he is assumed as eternal owing to the lack of change, he cannot act as a creator or producer of the phenomena. If he is regarded as non-eternal, even then he cannot be considered as the cause of the universe because he will have to be extinct at one point of the time or the other. If the creator is to be regarded abstract or intangible just as his nature being as the sky he cannot be the authority of the universe. If he is regarded as corporeal or tangible, he, being ordinary as a human being, cannot be the sole creator of the universe without the associations of some other force besides him 12.
