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VYAKHYA.PRAJNAPTI (BHAGAVATI-VIYAHAPAŅŅATTI)
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doctrine of infinity and finiteness, endlessness and limitedness discussed in the Pāli Brahmajāla Sutta (Dīgha, I).
In the Brahmajāla Sutta the Buddha refers to the four different propositions maintained by the contemporary and earlier recluses and Brāhmaṇas on four different grounds. (Dīgha, I, p. 22ff.). These are: (1) that this world is limited and circumscribed (antavā ayam loko parivatumo); (2) that it is limitless and without an end (ananto ayam loko upariyunto); (3) that it is both limited and unlimited (untavā ca ayam loko ananto ca), meaning that the world is limited above and below and unlimited crosswise; (4) that it is neither limited nor limited. The explanation given by Buddhaghosa in his cominentary, the Sumangalavilāsini, is not very illuminating. As he suggests, the limited or unlimited character of the world depends on the limited or unlimited view taken by the contemplative in his mental perception or vision (I, p. 115). Here we miss the philosophical aspect of the propositions. It appears that the third proposition referred to the view upheld by Mahāvīra and his disciples. According to Mahāvīra the world may be construed in some respects as limited and in some respects as unlimited (sa-ante loe añante loe). Here he considers the position of the world from the four points of view, from the point of view of substance (ilavuu0), from that of field of existence (khettao), from that of time (kūluo) and from that of phenomena (bhāvao). It is maintained that considered from first two points of view the world is limited and considered from the remaining points of view, it is unlimited (II, 1). It may be observed that with regard to all contradictory views the Bhagavatī Sūtra assigns to Mahävira a kind of synthetic position seeking to justify both of them, each from its own point of view. This was undoubtedly consistent with the 'It may be' doctrine (syātvāda of Jainism).
The Jaina ideas regarding the advent of different living beings in different states or forms of existence are on the whole the same as those in other Indian systems. T difference lies only in some unimportant details. The Jains too believe in the possibility of bodily advent without the help of any sex union. The Jaina belief, however, is a belief in the transmigration of soul, a point in which it differs from the Buddhist conception of rebirth without any transmigration of soul from embodiment to embodiment. The soul i Jainism as in most of the Indian systems is the factor which polarizes the field of matter and brings about the organic combination of the elements of existence. If the position be that death means an event which takes place when the
