________________
962
but refuse to study its nature any further. Their observation is thus confined to the paryâyârthic point of view, and consequently does not prove the existence of the soul as a self-subsisting reality. It is not that their observation is faulty, for the soul is actually affected by matter in the condition of bondage; but it is their metaphysical deduction which is to be rejected as a one-sided, and therefore necessarily inaccurate conclusion. The truth is that from the dravyârthic point of view, that is, considered as a thing in itself, the soul is a substance independent of matter; but from the paryayarthic side of the problem, no unredeemed soul-and it is only an unredeemed soul that is open to be experimented with- -can ever be found to be free from the companionship of matter. Hence the error of the materialist.
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Jainism warns us not only against inexhaustive research, but also against being misled by the one-sided observations and statements of others. Itself a perfect master of the Science of Thought, it knows the shortcomings of language-how it is incapable of expressing the results of investigation from different points of view at one and the same time, and how misleading its expression becomes unless attention be constantly directed to the particular standpoint from which a statement proceeds. To guard against this huge possibility of error, Jainism suggests the simple device of mentally placing the word syât (lit., somehow, hence, from a particular point of view or in a certain sense) before every judgment. This would at once enable one to perceive that the statement is made from a particular
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org