Chapter 5 · 42 sūtras
The Non-Living Substances
Ajīva Adhyāya
The philosophical heart of the text. Chapter 5 sets out the six substances — dharma, adharma, ākāśa, pudgala, jīva and kāla — classifying them by extension, motion, form and number. It explains the functions of the medium of motion and rest, defines matter by touch, taste, smell and colour, and describes how atoms combine into aggregates through the qualities of viscousness and dryness. It then gives the most famous definition in Jain philosophy: existence is origination, cessation and permanence together; and the definition of substance as that which possesses qualities and modes.
Learning objectives
- Name the six substances and classify each as extended/non-extended, with/without form, active/inactive.
- Explain the function of dharma and adharma with the standard analogies.
- Define pudgala by its four inseparable qualities.
- Explain how atoms bind into skandhas by snigdha and rūkṣa.
- State and unpack utpāda-vyaya-dhrauvya-yuktaṃ sat.
- Explain guṇa-paryāya-vad dravyam and why it makes change compatible with permanence.
Key concepts
- Six dravyas
- Jīva (soul), pudgala (matter), dharma (medium of motion), adharma (medium of rest), ākāśa (space), kāla (time). The first five are astikāyas — they occupy multiple space-points; kāla is not.
- Dharma and adharma
- Unique to Jain metaphysics. They do not cause motion or rest but make them possible — like water for a swimming fish and shade for a resting traveller. They are one, indivisible, formless and coextensive with the occupied universe.
- Pudgala
- Matter alone has form (rūpī): touch, taste, smell and colour are always present in it. It exists as atoms (aṇu) and aggregates (skandha), and is the material of bodies, speech, mind, breath and karma itself.
- Sat — the three-fold definition
- 'Utpāda-vyaya-dhrauvya-yuktaṃ sat': whatever exists arises, perishes and endures simultaneously. Gold persists while the bangle perishes and the ring appears. This single sūtra founds anekāntavāda.
- Dravya, guṇa, paryāya
- Substance possesses qualities (permanent, co-existent) and modes (changing, successive). Nothing exists as a bare substance without modes, and no mode floats free of a substance.
Diagrams
Extended (astikāya), with form (rūpī), and number (5.1-5.6).
Existence is origination, cessation and permanence at once (5.30).
Snigdha and rūkṣa degrees determine binding (5.32-5.36).
Reference plates
Large master charts for this chapter. Tap to open full screen and zoom.
Anekāntavāda — the doctrine of non-one-sidedness
Dravya, guṇa and paryāya illustrated through gold; the seven nayas; syādvāda; and the sapta-bhaṅgī sevenfold predication with the pot as example (5.29-5.31).
Chapters 1, 5
Master summary sheet — the whole system on one page
Six dravyas, seven tattvas, eight karmas, twenty-eight mohanīya prakṛtis, fourteen guṇasthānas, samyagdarśana and its eight aṅgas, four kaṣāyas × four intensities, nine no-kaṣāyas, the ratnatraya, five samitis, three guptis and the full journey from mithyātva to mokṣa.
Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Six dravyas and seven tattvas — illustrated cards
Each substance and each fundamental truth with an icon and a plain-English meaning: jīva, pudgala, dharma, adharma, ākāśa, kāla; and jīva, ajīva, āsrava, bandha, saṃvara, nirjarā, mokṣa (1.4, 5.1-5.2).
Chapters 1, 5
Sūtras
42 key sūtras of this chapter, with word-level notes and cross-links.
- 5.1
अजीवकाया धर्माधर्माकाशपुद्गलाः
ajīvakāyā dharmādharmākāśapudgalāḥ
The non-living extended substances are the medium of motion, the medium of rest, space and matter.
'Kāya' signals multi-pointedness. Four non-living astikāyas are listed; time is deliberately excluded because it has no body of space-points.
- 5.2
द्रव्याणि जीवाश्च
dravyāṇi jīvāśca
These, and souls, are substances.
Souls are added to the four, giving five astikāyas. Substance is the widest category in the system — there is no eighth thing, and nothing is created.
- 5.3
नित्यावस्थितान्यरूपाणि
nityāvasthitānyarūpāṇi
They are eternal, fixed in number, and formless.
Three claims at once: no substance is ever created or destroyed; their count never changes; and none of them (apart from matter, excepted next) can be sensed.
- 5.4
रूपिणः पुद्गलाः
rūpiṇaḥ pudgalāḥ
Matter has form.
The one exception to formlessness. Because karma is material, the invisible soul can be affected by something perceptible — the pivot of the whole karma theory.
- 5.5
आ आकाशादेकद्रव्याणि
ā ākāśādekadravyāṇi
Up to space, they are single substances.
Dharma, adharma and ākāśa are each one indivisible individual — not a class with many members, unlike souls and matter which are infinite in number.
- 5.6
निष्क्रियाणि च
niṣkriyāṇi ca
And they are without motion.
Dharma, adharma and ākāśa, each a single indivisible substance, are also inherently motionless — they enable motion in others without themselves moving.
- 5.7
असंख्येयाः प्रदेशा धर्माधर्मयोः
asaṃkhyeyāḥ pradeśā dharmādharmayoḥ
The medium of motion and the medium of rest have innumerable space-points.
They exactly coincide with lokākāśa — occupied space — which is why motion is impossible beyond it. This is why a liberated soul stops at the top of the universe.
- 5.8
जीवस्य च
jīvasya ca
And of the soul too [the space-points are innumerable].
Every embodied soul, like dharma and adharma, occupies innumerable space-points, contracting or expanding to fill its current body exactly.
- 5.9
आकाशस्यानन्ताः
ākāśasyānantāḥ
Of space, [the space-points] are infinite.
Space alone among the astikāyas has infinite space-points, since it extends without limit through both loka and aloka.
- 5.10
संख्येयासंख्येयाश्च पुद्गलानाम्
saṃkhyeyāsaṃkhyeyāśca pudgalānām
Of matter's aggregates, [the space-points] are numerable, innumerable, or infinite.
Skandhas of matter vary enormously in size, so unlike the other astikāyas they can occupy a numerable, innumerable or even infinite number of space-points.
- 5.11
नाणोः
nāṇoḥ
But not of the atom.
A single paramāṇu, being partless, occupies exactly one space-point and never more — it is the measure by which all extension is counted.
- 5.12
लोकाकाशेऽवगाहः
lokākāśe'vagāhaḥ
Substances occupy space only within the occupied universe.
Beyond loka is alokākāśa — pure empty space with nothing in it, not even the media of motion and rest. Space is infinite; the inhabited universe is not.
- 5.13
धर्माधर्मयोः कृत्स्ने
dharmādharmayoḥ kṛtsne
Of dharma and adharma, [occupation of space-points occurs] in entirety.
Each of the two, being a single continuous substance, occupies its innumerable space-points as an undivided whole coextensive with the occupied universe, never partially.
- 5.14
एकप्रदेशादिषु भाज्याः प्रदेशनिवयानाम्
ekapradeśādiṣu bhājyaḥ pradeśanivayānām
Of the clusters of space-points [i.e. matter's aggregates], occupation from one space-point onward is optional.
Unlike dharma and adharma, aggregates of matter may occupy as little as a single space-point or successively more, since they can contract and expand.
- 5.15
असंख्येयभागादिषु जीवानाम्
asaṃkhyeyabhāgādiṣu jīvānām
Of souls, [occupation ranges] from an innumerable part [of their full extent] onward.
A soul's own space-points are fixed in number, but through contraction it may occupy as little as an innumerable-th part of its full spread, up to the whole.
- 5.16
प्रदेशसंहारविसर्गाभ्यां प्रदीपवत्
pradeśasaṃhāravisargābhyāṃ pradīpavat
By the contraction and expansion of space-points, like a lamp.
A soul fits its body exactly by folding in or spreading out its space-points, just as a lamp's light fills a small closet or a large hall without altering the lamp itself.
- 5.17
गतिस्थित्युपग्रहौ धर्माधर्मयोरुपकारः
gatisthityupagrahau dharmādharmayorupakāraḥ
Assisting motion and rest are the functions of the medium of motion and the medium of rest.
'Upagraha' means auxiliary assistance, not causation. Water does not make the fish swim, but without it swimming cannot happen. Removing this pair would leave the universe frozen or scattered.
- 5.18
आकाशस्यावगाहः
ākāśasyāvagāhaḥ
Providing accommodation is the function of space.
Space does not push or hold; it simply gives room, and gives it without exclusion — infinite souls and atoms can occupy the same points.
- 5.19
शरीरवाङ्मनःप्राणापानाः पुद्गलानाम्
śarīravāṅmanaḥprāṇāpānāḥ pudgalānām
Body, speech, mind and respiration are functions of matter.
Strikingly, thought's instrument (the physical mind) and speech are material. Consciousness is not — but everything it works through in saṃsāra is.
- 5.20
सुखदुःखजीवितमरणोपग्रहाश्च
sukhaduḥkhajīvitamaraṇopagrahāśca
And [functions of matter also include] providing pleasure, pain, life and death.
Through karmic and other material causes, matter also occasions an embodied soul's happiness, suffering, continuance in life and death — extending its role beyond body and speech.
- 5.21
परस्परोपग्रहो जीवानाम्
parasparopagraho jīvānām
Souls render service to one another.
The ethical sūtra of the chapter, and the modern Jain motto. Mutual assistance — teaching, protecting, sustaining — is the natural function of souls in the world.
- 5.22
वर्तनापरिणामक्रियाः परत्वापरत्वे च कालस्य
vartanāpariṇāmakriyāḥ paratvāparatve ca kālasya
Continuity, modification, activity, and priority and posteriority are the functions of time.
Time does not act; it enables other substances to undergo their own changes in sequence. 'Vartanā' — keeping things going — is its primary function.
- 5.23
स्पर्शरसगन्धवर्णवन्तः पुद्गलाः
sparśarasagandhavarṇavantaḥ pudgalāḥ
Matter possesses touch, taste, smell and colour.
The definition of matter. All four are always present in every atom, even where only one is manifest to a given sense. Sound is not listed — it is a mode of matter, not a quality.
- 5.24
शब्दबन्धसौक्ष्म्यस्थौल्यसंस्थानभेदतमश्छायातपोद्योतवन्तश्च
śabdabandhasaukṣmyasthaulyasaṃsthānabhedatamaśchāyātapodyotavantaśca
And they [also possess as modes] sound, bonding, fineness, grossness, shape, fragmentation, darkness, shadow, sunlight and moonlight.
These ten are modes (paryāya) of matter rather than its inseparable qualities — sound, for instance, is a produced vibration of skandhas, not an ever-present property like touch.
- 5.25
अणवः स्कन्धाश्च
aṇavaḥ skandhāśca
Matter exists as atoms and aggregates.
The atom is partless, uncaused by combination, and can only be produced by division. Everything perceptible is a skandha.
- 5.26
सङ्घातभेदेभ्य उत्पद्यन्ते
saṅghātabhedebhya utpadyante
[Aggregates] arise from combination, from division, or from both.
A skandha may form purely by atoms joining, purely by a larger mass splitting, or by a mixture of the two processes occurring together.
- 5.27
भेदादणुः
bhedādaṇuḥ
The atom [arises] from division alone.
Since the atom is partless, it can never be produced by combination — it appears only when a skandha breaks apart down to its final, indivisible unit.
- 5.28
भेदसङ्घाताभ्यां चाक्षुषाः
bhedasaṅghātābhyāṃ cākṣuṣāḥ
And the visible [aggregates arise] from both division and combination.
Skandhas coarse enough to be seen require both processes together — enough atoms combining, and the mass dividing to a perceptible size.
- 5.29
सद्द्रव्यलक्षणम्
sad dravyalakṣaṇam
Existence is the characteristic of substance.
Sets up the definition that follows: to be a substance is to be real, and reality has a precise three-fold structure.
- 5.30
उत्पादव्ययध्रौव्ययुक्तं सत्
utpādavyayadhrauvyayuktaṃ sat
That which is endowed with origination, cessation and permanence is existent.
The single most important metaphysical sūtra in Jainism. It denies both the Buddhist view of pure flux and the Vedāntic view of pure permanence: every real thing changes in mode while enduring in substance. Anekāntavāda follows directly from it.
- 5.31
तद्भावाव्ययं नित्यम्
tadbhāvāvyayaṃ nityam
Permanence is the non-loss of essential nature.
Permanence is defined carefully so it does not mean changelessness. Gold remains gold through every ornament; a soul remains a soul through every birth.
- 5.32
स्निग्धरूक्षत्वाद्बन्धः
snigdharūkṣatvādbandhaḥ
Combination results from viscousness and dryness.
Jain atomic chemistry: atoms bind when their degrees of the two opposed qualities differ appropriately (by two degrees, with the further conditions given in the next sūtras) — never merely by contact.
- 5.33
न जघन्यगुणानाम्
na jaghanyaguṇānām
[Bonding does] not [occur] between atoms of the lowest degree [of viscousness or dryness].
An atom whose snigdha or rūkṣa quality is at its minimum single degree cannot bond with any other atom, however matched — a baseline threshold for combination.
- 5.34
गुणसाम्ये सदृशानाम्
guṇasāmye sadṛśānām
Between similar atoms of equal degree, [bonding does not occur].
Two atoms both viscous, or both dry, to the very same degree do not bond with each other; likeness alone is not enough without a qualifying difference.
- 5.35
द्व्यधिकादिगुणानां तु
dvyadhikādiguṇānāṃ tu
But [bonding occurs] between atoms whose degrees differ by two or more.
Whether of the same or opposite qualities, atoms bond only when one exceeds the other by at least two degrees of viscousness or dryness — the precise threshold of Jain atomic chemistry.
- 5.36
बन्धे समाधिकौ पारिणामिकौ
bandhe samādhikau pāriṇāmikau
In bonding, the [atom of] equal or greater degree transforms [the other into its own quality].
When two qualifying atoms bond, the one with the higher degree converts the weaker one to its own character, so the resulting aggregate is qualitatively unified.
- 5.37
अर्पितानर्पितसिद्धेः
arpitānarpitasiddheḥ
[This is all established] through emphasized and unemphasized [viewpoints].
Origination, cessation, permanence and combination are each real, but which aspect is 'emphasized' (arpita) and which recedes into the background depends on the standpoint taken — the bridge to viewing substance through its qualities and modes.
- 5.38
गुणपर्ययवद् द्रव्यम्
guṇaparyayavad dravyam
Substance is that which possesses qualities and modes.
Guṇas co-exist with the substance permanently (consciousness in the soul); paryāyas succeed one another (human, then god, then human). Knowing this distinction is the key to reading chapters 8-10 correctly.
- 5.39
द्रव्याश्रया निर्गुणा गुणाः
dravyāśrayā nirguṇā guṇāḥ
Qualities reside in substance and are themselves without [further] qualities.
Guṇas always depend on a dravya and never occur independently, and unlike substances they do not in turn possess their own further qualities — this distinguishes guṇa from dravya precisely.
- 5.40
तद्भावः परिणामः
tadbhāvaḥ pariṇāmaḥ
Its own becoming is transformation.
Pariṇāma (mode/paryāya) is defined as a substance's coming into its own successive state — change that belongs to and never departs from the substance's own nature.
- 5.41
कालश्चेत्येके
kālaścetyeke
And some [teachers] hold that time too [is a separate substance].
A number of ācāryas treat kāla as a seventh, independent substance rather than a mere convention for measuring change in the other five. The next sūtra reports how they describe its structure.
- 5.42
सोऽनन्तसमयः
so'nantasamayaḥ
That, [according to them], consists of innumerable instants.
Closing the digression begun in the previous sūtra, those who count time as a substance hold that it is composed of an endless series of indivisible instants (samaya).