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INTRODUCTION
LRODUULIUK..
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carried away by a sense of superiority of his own Swetāmbara sect, he has opposed some views (as regards conduct etc.) mentioned by the Digambara sect and has entered into exhaustive discussion and controversies regarding them. The authority of the Jaina doctrines entirely depends upon the belief that it is composed by a human being who is omniscient. This authority of the Jaina doctrines is opposed mainly by four views of the Mimārsakas. These are: (1) Apaurașeyavāda, (2) Swataḥaprāmāṇyavāda, (as a corrollery of the first vāda), (3) Sabdanityatwavāda--the eternity of words, and (4) the impossibility of their being an omniscient person. All these views were very powerful at the time of the commentator and in order to establish the authority of the Jaina Āgamas the commentator has entered into very lengthy and scholarly discussions following the method of Tattwasangraha of Sāntirakṣita. Jaina philosophy accepts nobody as the Creator of this, Universe. Moreover, the Jainas regarded the soul as covering only the dimensions of a body and regarded the freed souls as enjoying eternal bliss after their liberation. These doctrines of the Jainas are directly opposed to the doctrine of God as the creator propounded by the Nyāya and Vaiseșika philosophy. The universality of the soul and the absence of any feeling of bliss in the state of liberation are also peculiar doctrines of Nyāya and Vaiseșika philosophy. Now all these doctrines, going against the corresponding doctrines of the Jainas in this respect, have been ably refuted by the commentator. In the commentary of the first Gāthā, the
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