Theories Of Parinama

Author(s): Indukala H Jhaveri
Publisher: Gujarat University

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The Samkhya-Yoga and the Jaina Theories of Parinama
From our point of view, what is noteworthy in the hymns is the association of Kala with dynamic ideas or ideas signifying movement. These are prominently brought out in the metaphors of a 'horse' and 'wheels'. Just as a horse carries forward a chariot, similarly the Time-horse carries forward all the worlds - i. e. all the things of the universe - which are imagined as the "wheels' of Time. This is how the movement of the universe in time is visualised.
Of course, we have not here as yet any conscious or systematic philosophy of change. Its importance for us, however, lies in the fact that it represents an attempt of the ancient thinkers to visualise the cause of all changing world - phenomena.
From the above survey of the tendencies of thought that prevailed in the Rgveda and the Atharvaveda, it can be seen that the spirit of philosophic enquiry had already seized the minds of the Vedic thinkers and that by setting up the queries concerning the first principle and by seeking to solve them, they had, no doubt, unknowingly broached the problems of the One and Many, of the abiding' and the 'changing' aspects of reality. These, passing through the Brāhmaṇa period, were to gather force and emerge into certain definite concepts in the Upanisadic period.
THE BRAHMANAS
(1200 B.C. to 1500 B.C)14
When we come to the Brahmaņas we find the cult of sacrifice acquiring predominance to an amazing degree. There are, however, two aspects of the development of this idea of sacrifice. One is that of a complex and complicated sacrificial ritual, whereas the other is that of giving a mystical meaning to the entire act of sacrifice. This latter aspect, as seen above, was already foreshadowed in the later portions of the Rgveda (X.90) wherein we have,
14 Prof, Belvalkar, 'History of Indian Philosophy', Vol. II, p. 37.