In the Dravyasamgraha, dharma and adharma don’t carry the moral weight familiar from everyday speech. Instead, they’re portrayed as the silent enablers of every movement and pause in the universe. Dharma-dravya is the principle, or “substance,” that makes motion possible; adharma-dravya is the counterpart that allows rest.

Dharma-dravya functions much like water in a riverbed: without that fluid medium, there’s no flow. It doesn’t push objects along, nor does it itself move; it simply provides the condition in which souls and matter can travel. Adharma-dravya, by contrast, resembles the solidity of earth underfoot—it offers the environment needed for stillness. Neither of these substances is sentient or active in the way jīvas (souls) are; they’re more like the stage on which all motion and stillness unfold.

Both dharma and adharma share a set of characteristics:

• All-pervasive: Present wherever matter exists.
• Intangible: Formless, invisible, and ungraspable.
• Passive: Lacking any desire or action of their own.
• Non-composite: Without parts, occupying space without subdividing.

By defining them this way, Nemicandra neatly sidesteps moral overtones and focuses on their metaphysical roles. In today’s digital age, they might be likened to the internet’s bandwidth and downtime—neither creates content, yet without them nothing would stream or pause.

Dravyasamgraha emphasizes that motion and rest aren’t properties inherent in souls or matter but arise only in their interaction with these two media. Whether a particle drifts through space or comes to a halt, it’s dharma-dravya and adharma-dravya doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

This elegant framing reminds that some of the most crucial elements of existence are those operating quietly in the background—unnoticed until motion or stillness itself ceases to exist.