Theories Of Parinama

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

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The Sāṁkhya-Yoga and the Jaina Theories of Parinama
nature and its relation to man. The world in its manifold aspects seems to be a created thing. They, therefore, searched the creator and the substance out of which it must have been created, on the analogy, say, of a carpenter or a potter creating his artifacts. In the earlier stages such gods, as Indra, Agni, Varuņa etc. are regarded as creating the world. Later, Hiranyagarbha, Viśvakarmā and Prajāpati perform this function. As to the original substance water seems to have a preference over others. Sometimes, however, Tamas, Tapas and Sraddhā are regarded as the original entities. Some of the Vedic thinkers alight upon such distinctions as one (97) and Many (a) Sat and Asat i. e. Being and Non-being and get perplexed as to what must have been the first principle from
the manifold might have come forth. Some of the thinkers appear to have grappled with the difficulty of relating One and Many, Being and Non-being, Permanence and Change. Those who could not resolve the contradiction assumed one of these as the ultimate principle according to their predilections. Sometimes Sat was posited as the original principle, sometimes Asat and sometimes That One, Tadekam.
We are interested in understanding these later principles viz. Sat, Asat and Tadekam. These terms suggest an approach different from that of the creationist thinkers. They suggest what we might call a metaphysical tendency seeking for a general principle in the multifarious phenomena of the world,
In the terms Sat and Asat, the Vedic thinkers seem to have embodied their ideas of Permanence and Change. In their attempt to find something which would comprehend the 'dvandvas' (opposites) or to discover a principle from which these could be derived, they alight upon the idea of Puruşa who can give birth to the phenomenal world and yet remain permanent or immortal. This idea is expressed by saying that a part of the Puruşa becomes the world while its three parts are immortal in heaven. Thus the problem of the existence of the world is solved by regarding it as merely worked out from a part of Puruşa. Anyway, here is an