Concept of Pancasila in Indian Thaought

SR No.: 001666
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamla Jain
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 290
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 16 MB

Page 180

CHAPTER V
TRUTH
The ethical principle of truth or abstention from falsehood constitutes the fourth sila in Buddhism, but in non-Buddhist systems it is given second position. Though 'truth' and 'abstention from falsehood' are just positive and negative aspects of one and the same phenomenon, some difference can be marked in the two terms positive and negative. The latter or 'abstention from falsehood' presents a purely ethical I principle, while the former, i.e. 'truth', connotes both ethical and metaphysical principles. So, for the sake of precision and clarity wherever the term truth or 'satya' is used it should be pr-supplemented by the term 'metaphysical' or 'ethical'. The negative term, i. e. abstention from falsehood, however, is free from this difficulty, because it only signifies an ethical principle, though this ethical principle may relate to metaphysical. It is needless to say that metaphysical character of this principle is no less important than the ethical, nor is it easy to discuss them (metaphysical and ethical) independently, because metaphysical and ethical concepts are not entirely independent of each other in Indian philosophy; in a way, ethical is dependent on metaphysical. Hence, it has hitherto been attempted not to isolate ethical truth from metaphysical truth, but to deduce ethical truth from metaphysical in various systems, even though truth as one of the five precepts is understood only as a moral or ethical principle.
The term 'truth' or 'satya' has got varied implications. It is derived from 'sat' and 'sat' is more often understood in the sense of the Ultimate Reality. It is that which is never destroyed or destroyable. According to Sarakara 'sat' means permanent; that which existed in the past, continues to exist in the present and will exist in the future. All that which is