Confluence of Opposites

SR No.: 006704
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain
Publication Year: 1921
Total Pages: 422
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 54

METHOD OF COMPARISON the religion of birth depends merely on the incident of being born in a certain family and surroundings; but surely that is no criterion of truth. If instead of being born in religion X, I were born in religion Y, I should have had Y as my religion ; and Z, if born in 2! But because I thus believe in religion X and not in Y or Z is no test of the truth of X, for those born in Y and Z also regard them just as true as I regard X. Private beliefs do not, therefore, establish the truth of the mat. ter of belief. Even Scriptural text, as stated in the first lecture, is no test of truth, for why should one scripture be preferred to another? This does not mean that all Sacred Books are to be rejected by us en bloc, but that we should try to find out for ourselves which of them, if any, is the word of a qualified Teacher and worthy of being accepted and followed.
How, then, is the truth to be known ? By means of rigid rationalism and scientific method ! Broadly put, the sources of knowledge are
(i) observation, (ii) reflection or meditation, i. e., inference and
(iii) testimony. Of these three, the first, namely, observation, is the foundation of science; the second, that is inference, is the basis of philosophy, and the third, i.e., testimony, when it proceeds from the most unimpeachable and fully qualified source, that is to say, the word of an Omnis. cient Teacher is scripture. In short, perfection of Observation is science ; perfection of Inference is Meta. physics ; and perfection of Testimony, Scripture.