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quite clear that in the opinion of Mahavira the sense of Guna is Paryaya and nothing else. Beyond Paryāya there is no attribute of a thing.
CHAPTER III
If we look to the etymology of the two words Guna and Paryaya we find that they are absolutely synonyms: Paryaya means the changes in the Dravya either consecutive or simultaneous, and Guna means assuming of different forms on the part of a thing. Thus really thereis no difference in the sense of the word Guna and Paryaya. Lord Mahavira, however, has used the word Paryāyāstika. He has used the word Paryaya with reference to the attributes of a thing, such as a Varna (colour) and Gandha (smell) Rasa (taste), etc. In this reference he has nowhere used the word Guna. It is therefore quite clear that there is no such thing as Guna apart from Paryaya.
Here an opponent who believes in the difference between Guņa and Paryaya protests by saying that with reference to colour in Agamas the word Guna is used in words such as Eka-guna-syama etc. It seems that Mahavira, therefore, has used the word Guna and that the word is different from Paryaya in its sense. To this the author replies by saying that the word Guna is not used by Mahavira in the sense of any attribute such as colour etc. He has nowhere used the word Guna along with the words Varna, Gandha etc. Now the word Guna as used. in the Eka-guna, Daśa-guna or Ananta-guna black denotes the degree of blackness of the same type. It is not used in the sense of attributes but to show the difference in degree between attributes of the same class thus this
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