Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 83

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VAISHALI RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 3
to the connection of soul with kārmic matter, it bears different colours varying according to the merits and demerits of the particular being. Thus every action imparts a character called lesyā to the soul. All this is quite understandable to the common man. The Jain classification of mundane souls according to the number of sense-organs they possess and again into rational and irrational animals on the basis of internal sense-organ, is very crude and popular.
Non-soul is conceived to be in all respects opposite of soul. It is unconscious and material. Earth, water, fire and air are all different forms of matter. Non-soul is divided into space, motion, rest, time and matter. All sorts of matter subsist in space. Space is all-pervasive and provides accommodation to all the objects of the universe, both souls and non-souls. The space in which all these exist is called Lokākāsa and the space which lies above and beyond this worldly existences is called Alokākāsa. Alokākāsa is empty space. Motion and Rest do not exist by themselves but are prerequisites of all constituents of the world. Time is the cause of change in things. The particles of time exist throughout lokākāsa and help in origination and destruction. Matter consists of atoms and is subject to change and development. It is infinite in number. These are all simplistic. The dassification of total class of beings into four viz. men, animals, gods and devils and the conception of their respective abodes, namely, men and animals living in the perceptible world; gods in world above this world and devils in hell (lower world) is conspicuously commonplace.
A very significant theory, the Jain theory of Anekāntvāda which literally presents a realistic view of the reality and the world, strikes a balance between mutually hostile views about them and really proves to be crude and customary. Reality has infinite attributes and hence is indefinite in nature. It is characterised by origination, continuation and decay. In respect of substance things are permanent but in respect of qualities they originate, continue and perish. Reality thus is a synthesis of oppositespermanence and change. Now, as the self-same reality has many and different aspects and we know only a few of them at a time, a statement about one and the same object is never absolutely valid but is only partially so under one set of conditions. This is Anekānta. As corrolary to this theory, Jainas put forth the theory of Syädvāda according to which the nature of all our judgements are relative and probable and they present only partial truths about an entity. They are true from a particular point of view and are never absolute truths. From the theory of Syādvāda follows its logical counterpart, the theory of Nayavāda. Relative judgements are expressed in seven ways called Nayas. They are points of views from which a statement about a thing is made. These are all quite compatible with the