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TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
Question : The substance ākāśa is admitted in the systems of philosophy like Sānkhya, Nyāya, Vaiseșika etc. but the substances dharma and adharma are admitted nowhere else. Why then are they posited by the Jaina system alone ?
Answer : The physical and conscious substances are a specific part of the visible-cum-invisible universe, and their mobility is a matter of plain experience. Now if no constraining verity is available there, then these substances, on account of their natural mobility, will move on to any place whatsoever in the ananta-unit extent of ākāśa. And if they actually move on to any place whatsoever in the ananta-unit extent of ākāśa then that fixed configuration of the visible-cum-invisible universe which always appears there bearing the same general form will remain utterly unaccountable; for in that case the pudgala numbering ananta and the jīvas numbering ananta, as a result of moving about without restrain in the ākāśa-region of an ananta-unit extent, will be so separated from one another that a reunion on their part and an appearance in the form of a fixed world-picture
e if not actually impossible. That is why the Jaina system admits the existence of a verity supposed to define the limit of motion in the case of those mobile substances; it is this verity that is designated dharmāstikāya. And when the verity in question is admitted in the form of a definer of the limit of motion then the same reasoning enables the Jaina system to admit the verity adharmāstikāya in the form definer of the limit of stoppage-of-motion.
The usage as to east, west etc. which is supposed to be a function of the substance dik is well accountable on the basis of ākāśa, and so there is no need to posit a substance dik apart from ākāśa. But the function of dharma and adharma is not accountable on the basis of ākāśa; for if ākāśa be admitted to be a definer of motion and stoppage then being of an ananta-unit extent and impartite it would not be able to prevent the physical and conscious substances from moving about anywhere and everywhere within itself, and that being the case the fixed configuration of the visible-cum-invisible universe will remain
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