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182
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
And when ākāśa is declared to be support in relation to the remaining substances the reason is that it is greater in magnitude than them all.
Even the four substances dharma etc., acting as occupant do not reside in the entire ākāśa; they in fact are seated in but a particular limited portion of ākāśa. And that portion of ākāśa in which they are seated is called loka-ākāśa. Loka means the five astikāyas. Round about the portion in question there exists ākāśa ananta units in extension. And since in this surrounding portion of akāśa there exist no other substances it is called aloka-ākāśa. Here when the relation of support and occupant is considered in connection with the asţikāyas that should be understood as pertaining to but loka-ākāśa.
The two asţikāyas dharma and adharma are each of the form of an impartite aggregate such that they occupy the entire loka-ākāśa. The same idea can also be expressed as follows: When in the really impartite ākāśa two parts loka and aloka are
d through intellect that is done only on the basis of its association with the substances dharma and adharma. Thus the region where association with these substances obtains is called loka, that where it does not is called aloka.
As for the substance pudgala its appropriate seat of occupation, viewed generally, is doubtless loka-ākāśa; even then the magnitude of the seat of occupation is different in the case of different pudgala-substances. For unlike the substances dharma and adharma, the substance pudgala is not of the form of one instance—so that there is no question of there being just one seat of occupation in the case of this substance. The different pudgalasubstances are different individual bodies and they differ rather than agree as to their magnitude. That is why the magnitude of their seat of occupation is here described in the form of alternatives. Thus one pudgala occupies one pradeśa of lokākāśa, another occupies two of them; similarly, some pudgala occupies a portion of loka-ākāśa measuring asarkhyāta pradeśas. The idea is that the number of pradeśas constituting the seat of occupation
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