The Enigma Of The Universe : Definition of Matter

Lenin gives the following definition of matter: "We ask, is a man given objective reality when he sees something red or feels something hard, etc. or not?.... If you hold that it is given, a philosophical concept is needed for this objective reality, and this concept has been worked out long, long ago. This concept is matter. Matter is a philosophical category designating the objective reality which is given to man by his sensations, and which is copied, photographed and reflected by our sensations, while existing independently of them."^[1] This definition of matter comes very close to the Jain definition of pudgala viz., "pudgala is that which possesses in itself the qualities of touch, taste, odour and colour." Even though the Jain philosophy denies the possibility of perception^[2] of the ultimate atoms (paramāṇu) of matter through sensory means, it accepts the quality of mūrtatva (corporality), being objectively existent even in a paramāṇus. Also both the materialism and the Jain philosophy recognise matter as an objective reality. In the words of Lenin, "......the sole property of matter with whose recognition Philosophical Materialism is bound up is the property of being an objective reality, of existing outside our mind."^[3]