________________
A Vista of the Path
281
attributes being modalities subject to time.60 Furthermore: That which is permanent and imperishable: the essential nature [of dravya].61
Again, dravya is defined as: "The qualities and modes."62 The guņas (qualities or attributes) belong to each substance and this is what distinguishes the substances one from another, while the paryāyas, modes, are the particular modifications particular to each substance.63 Dravya, as such, is different from both qualities and modes, but at the same time it is these guņas (characteristics) 'which cause such or such a substance to be what it is. Dravya and guna arc always in association, for example, matter as a substance is associated with taste, colour and smell, which are its attributes, while the paryayas, particular modes, are not invariably linked in their particularities to some substance, for they change, are renewed, are the manner of being of a substance at a given moment, in certain particular circumstances. For example, a porcelain cup is green, its colour is a guna, an attribute of the dravya porcelain, while green is a paryāya or particular mode of colour. Tomorrow the cup may be painted red, while the porcelain persists, as does also colour as such, but it has changed.
This particular approach in which each object possesses multiple aspects is called anekāntavăda: it includes in its embrace unity, difference, the universal, the particular, change, permanence, substance and its modes. Anekāntavāda is also termed syādvāda, the
60 Cf. PSa II, 27-28 where this point is clearly explained.
61 tadbhāvāvyayaṁ nityam. TS V, 31; P$a II, 11
62 guna-paryāyavat dravyam. TS V, 38; cf. PSa I, 87; II, 1; US XXVIII, 5-6. Mode: paryāya can also mean repetition, periodic return, like that of the seasons.
63 Cf. PSa I, 10; II, 22.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
