________________
86
a bundle of names and forms, or illusion, that is, an imaginary show. Matter, from this point of view, is only the imaginary material of this imaginary world, and exists only in relation to the mind of a percipient being or beings. In this sense we may call it the content of mind.
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Further, since that which is an illusion can only exist in relation with a mind, it also follows that consciousness or mind must exist independently of matter; for it would be strange logic to say that mind is the product of a substance which itself depends on mind for its perception. This is precisely what Vedanta teaches. According to it, the one universal consciousness, or god, whom it calls Brahman, is the only real existence and all else an illusion.
As regards the objection that the reality of matter is indispensable for a rigid necessity and uniformity of the laws of nature, it is easily met; for it makes no difference to experimental science whether the universe be real or imaginary, inasmuch as the laws of nature depend not on our ideas concerning the nature of the universewhether it be real or imaginary-but on the properties of what exists.
From the standpoint of Idealism, Kant's explanation of the laws of nature is now generally accepted to be true. He points out:
"If experience is to teach us laws to which the existence of things is subject, these laws, if they regard things in themselves, must belong to them of necessity, even outside of our experience. But experience teaches us what exists and how it exists, but never that it must necessarily exist so, and not otherwise. Experience therefore can never teach us the nature of things in themselves."-Kant's Prolegomena, by Dr. Paul Carus, pp. 50-51.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org