First Steps to Jainism Part 2

SR No.: 001641
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 172
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Education
File Size: 11 MB

Page 137

The Indian-Jaina Dialectic af Syädvāda 123
from the synthetic angle of vision (dravyårthikanaya).” p. 301.)
(JPN
"It seems legitimate to conclude that the universe is one exis. tence which manifests itself, as substance (dravya) as it unifies the modes and attributes. The selfsame existence again reveal as Space in so far as it provides accommodation for the infinite plurality of existence within itself (kşetra). It is the same existence which manifests itself as Time (w. f. kala) is so far as it changes into aspects, as precedent and consequent as earlier and latter, as present, past and future modes. It is the same existence that evolves as phases and modes, attributes and states. The substance, time, space, attribute and relation are thus evolved from the same existence. The different categories, thus viewed as functional variations of one principle, are no longer in a position of antagonism of indifferent isolation. (Aşțasähasri, p. 113.)
The world of reals is thus not only plurality but a unity also. It is one universe that the Jaina metaphysics gives us. But the oneness is not secured at the sacrifice of the many, nor are the many left in unsocial indifference.” (JPN, pp. 301-302.)
5.3. It has been observed that "Jain philosophy is....entitled to be called the paragon of realism. If experience be the ultimate source of knowledge of reality and its behaviour, we cannot repudiate the plurality of things. The admission of plurality necessitates the recognition of the dual nature of reals as constituted of being' and 'non-being as fundamental elements. One real will be distinguished from another real and this distinction, unless it is dismissed as error of judgment, presupposes that each possesses a different identity, in other words that being of one is not the being of the other. This truth is propounded by the Jaina in that things are real, so far as they have a self-identity of their own unshared by others (svarupasartā), and they are unreal in respect of a different selfidentity (pararupasattā) ...The logic of Jaina is empirical logic, which stands in irreconcilable opposition to pure logic.1” (JPN, P. 181.)
5.4. J. Sinha (HIP., vol II, p. 110) gives the following summary of Jaina philosophy : "The world is self-existent and eternal.
1 Pure logic in the sense of formal logic.