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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
of view of the four-fold expression of the aspects other than its own, we can predicate the negation of the existence of the object. The fourfold aspects are: (1) the matter out of which a thing is made (dravya), (2) place of existence (kşetra) (3) time of its existence (kāla) and (4) its nature (bhāva). From the point of view of the nature of matter out of which a thing is made, we may predicate its existence if it is consistent with its nature. If we have to refer to its place, time and its function, and if they are consistent with its nature, then we can predicate its existence. For instance, the pot is a pot. if it is r out of clay, if it is in a particular determined place, at a particular time and in its own nature. But if the object is referred to the fourfold expressions of its aspects other than its real nature, then we predicate the negation.
Syādvādananjari present the four-fold expression of the aspects of a thing from the phenomenal or the practical point of view (vyavahāranaya). For instance, from the point of view of the substance out of which it is made, we can affirm the existence of the pot as made up of clay, then affirm the existence of the pot in Pāțaliputra at a particular time, say winter and from the point of view of its nature as black.3
Every thing in the universe is complex in its nature with its infinite characteristics. Considered from points of view of its selfnature, in the four-fold expression of its aspects as mentioned above, we can predicate the affirmation of its existence as the object is considered from the point of view of the contrary nature with the objects with reference to the four-fold expression of its otherness of the aspects, we can predicate the negation of the object. In these predications there should be no contradiction at all, because as we have pointed earlier, a thing is not merely made up of positive qualities, it has also the negative qualities. Therefore, the Jaina conception of the seven-fold predication with reference to the four-fold expressions of the self-nature and the other nature is a coherent presentation of the analysis of the nature of the object. There is no inconsistency either logical or metaphysical in the seven-fold predications.
1. Pancădhyāyī 1,263 2. Syādvādamañjarī, kārikā 23.
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