Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 214

8. PHILOSOPTICAL DOCTRINES
195
eternal and pervasive. He seems also to criticize the Sāṁkhya theory that the self continues to exist without any knowledge or mental process after the cessation of its connection with the material world. He points out that the Self is bound to have unlimited knowledge even in its pristine state, once the impurity of Karma is removed, in the same way as the Self has knowledge of things in dreams that come true. The analogy of dream consciousness is continued; and Somadeva contends that even a blind man can see things in a dream, and it is therefore wrong to suppose that the emancipated Self can have no knowledge, being without any sense organs. It is but natural that tie intellect should reveal the entire range of objects, like the rays of the sun, nce the screen of Karma is destroyed,
VEDĀNTA DOCTRINES There are two references to Vedānta doctrines in Yasastilaka VI. 1. First, it is stated that, according to the Vedāntins, salvation takes place when Nescience, which brings about the cognition of endless divergences, is destroyed as the result of the realisation of the Absolute. Secondly, all living oreatures are merged in the Absolute after the final annihilation of the body, just as the space enclosed within a jar is merged in universal space after the breaking up of the jar."
Somadeva criticizes the above doctrines thus. First, if all divergence is dismissed as Nescience, how can the varied character of the world be explained, with its palpable manifestations of birth, death, pleasure and the like? Secondly, if the Absolute alone exists and nothing else, why is there no cessation of the waves of worldly phenomena? Why is the universe distinctly seen? Why is it not merged in the Absolute, just as the space enclosed within a jar is merged in universal space ?: The Vedāntins also say that the Supreme Soul is one, though it abides in each individual: it is seen both as one and many, like the moon and its reflections in water. The
1 3777CATERI PA H 14: 1 faaetat i ett hittymi: 9991 P. 271. 2 See above, 3 te HoTTRICT HEA ICHITET asfaa RIHATFORII P. 272. Ms. A says:
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मनन्तं ज्ञानं स्यादित्यर्थः । + यत्र नेत्रादिकं नास्ति न तत्र मतिरात्मनि । तन्न युक्तमिदं यस्मात्स्वानमन्धोऽपि वीक्षते ॥ P. 272 5 racit Te Tea afa: 12 Syft
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