What is Jainism

SR No.: 006714
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain
Total Pages: 210
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

Page 202

192
ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
which may be expressive of both affirmance and negation at one and the same time. Of course we are free to coin any technical term that will express the same object: "It all depends," will do equally well if taken as a technical term, only it is not a single word and fails to express the true difficulty arising from the short-coming of human language, which the word " avaktavya" fully expresses. In other words, it fails to express the real conception at the back of consciousness, and tends to divert attention from the exact point by resort to the convenient phraseology of an easier matter-of-fact life.
The difficulty with men is that they are ever prone to form an opinion hastily and without exhaustive research. To the bat's eye the glory of the day must undoubtedly be tantamount to total darkbut then the bat's eye must be confined to its own little sphere of activity and kept from intruding upon human thought, where only an eye that is accustomed to light and the glittering brilliancy of the day can be our model and guide and the ideal.
ness,
It is apparent now that the charge of indefiniteness brought against the doctrine of Syadvada has no foundation of fact anywhere As a matter of fact the system of Syadvada is more exact and determinate than all systems based on one-sided absolutisms. For the man who knows S to be P in certain cases, and not P in certain other cases, and as indescribable in one aspect of its nature, and so forth, is certainly possessed of more definite information concerning it than he who only knows it absolutely as P or as not P. The supposed contradiction, too, between S being P and not being P needs no explanation now. It is important to note that there can be no contradiction between statements made from different points of view, and that for a real discrepancy, the assertion and the denial of a fact must proceed from one and the same standpoint. Many instances can be given from non-Jaina works of such contradictory statements which can, in many instances, be easily reconciled to one another with the aid of the Syadvada; but not otherwise. Here is a striking instance in point from the Adhyatma Ramayana (Sacred Books of the Hindus Series, Chap. 3, Verse 23) :
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"Though doing [ acting ] thou art no actor, though going thou art really not going. Though hearing thou art in reality not hearing, though seeing thou art not seeing."