Tattvarthadhigamsutram Part 2

Author(s): Umaswati, Umaswami, Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Jivanchandra Sakarchandra

Page 70

34
INTRODUCTION
were one homogeneous substance or when they were not differentiated. This remark applied to the past holds good for the future, too. That is to say each remains what it is. A soul never becomes a non-soul and vice versa. Space never becomes matter. Matter never becomes a conscious thing. To put in a nutshell, the six dravyas, in spite of their common characterstic of sattva are fundamental and irreducible, one to another. These six do not need causes; some of them are themselves the causes of events. To speak metaphorically, they form the stage of the whole drama of the Universe.
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1Dharma and adharma are both real substances; they are not illusive or unreal. They are eternal, amurta, devoid of touch, etc. and co-terminous with one another as well as with lokākāśa, or filled space. They are therefore non-existent in the aloka or the infinite space left to itself. As jiva and pudgala move of and by themselves, dharma is strictly passive. Similarly adharma also is a 'passive substance; for, the jiva and pudgala stop or come to rest of their own accord. Dharma and adharma are thus only instrumental in motion and rest respectively, that is to say, they are devoid of any kind of direct causal potency.
It may be pointed out that we cannot treat any one of them as logically prior to the other. Nor can we conceive that one of them tends to counteract the effect of the other and thereby the order in the universe is brought about as the resultant. Furthermore, it is not possible to maintain that dharma and adharma resemble the principles of Love and Hate, the principle guaranteeing motion within limits and the principle of gravitation respectively, or the electro-magnetic influences, positive and negative like those inherent in the constitution of an atom. Moreover, we cannot attribute to them any sort of dynamic energising just as we cannot think of them as centripetal and centrifugal forces.
Thus dharma and adharma are the accompanying conditions of motion and rest i.e. are assistant in making the moving object move and the stationary object stationary. They are never, the dynamic, active or productive causes of motion and rest.
1. The picture of dharma and adharma which is depicted here is mainly based upon the article "Adharma" published in the Jaina Gazette (Vol. XXIII, Nos. 10-12)
2. If adharma were active and it alone were to function in the Universe there would be absolute rest and universal cosmic paralysis; in such a case, there will be the necessity of a counteracting force roughly called dharma which would guarantee free movements.