Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

SR No.: 001619
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Religion, & Epistemology
File Size: 8 MB

Page 346

Soul
331
vities of the sense-organ which are located in one's body and the existence of which is inferred from the genesis of sensation and of the vital activities. Such Nirodha or cessation of sensations etc. is impossible in trees. A cessation of something implies its previous existence. Hence he who would suppose the possibility of a cessation of sensation etc. in trees must also admit the actual perceiving power in trees.. Whoever denies cognition in trees cannot speak of its cessation in them. It may be said that drying up is also Death and this is found in trees. This is true no doubt. But the Death in the case of trees would be a competent Hetu, only if it meant a cessation of sensations etc. which we have seen, presupposes a previous existence of the sensing power in trees. Hence the Reason i.e. Death (put forward by the Jaina's) is unproved in the case of trees. The drying up of trees is no doubt an admitted fact but this is Ahetu i.e. an incompetent Reason. (Cessation of sensations etc. is Death; drying up is also Death; the former proves consciousness; but the latter does not). Without properly considering which kind of death is competent to prove consciousness in trees and which not, the Digambara has stated Death only to be the Hetu in the proposition under consideration. He does not know the real character of Death requisite for the purposes of the case here. He has seen the Death of trees, consisting in their drying up. Death, so far as it consists in drying up, is a Hetu proved with him. But with the opponent (i.e. the Buddhist) who knows the real nature of the Hetu, Death, which is competent to prove the proposition under consideration, the Hetu is certainly unproved. Scientific observation and experiment in modern times have tended to show that the distinction between a plant and the lowest kind of animal is hardly maintainable. It has been found that the manner of reaction to the various stimuli of heat, light, electricity, friction, gravity, chemical action etc. by animals and what has been called "the sensitive" portion of many plants is exactly the same. The phenomena of "irritability" of some of the higher plants and their movements have been in many cases found to