Jethalal S. Zaveri
Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar
Now, we should be quite clear about the meaning of the statement 'a paramanu possesses one colour'. We have already said that an individual paramanu by itself is never an object of sensuous cognition and we have also said that paramanus are cognised by their collective or group behaviour only. What, then, do we mean by saying that only one out of the five primary colours can be associated with a paramanu! It should be remembered that though a paramanu is not an object of sensuous cognition by us, it can be cognised by a kevalin or a parama-avadhi-jnani, that is, they are aware of the colour of the paramanu and that is why it is rupi or murta. Possession of one colour simply means that a paramanu will reflect a precisely single wavelength corresponding to multiplicity of colour of its components. Thus, a paramanu must manifest itself as having a single colour to a super-normal faculty as stated above. Whether it is actually so constituted as to behave in that fashion, it is for the physicists to determine.
Similarly, of the five different tastes and the two different smells, a paramanu will manifest itself to possess only one of each.
