Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 006901
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation
Publication Year: 2009
Total Pages: 298
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 5 MB

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The Jaina Philosophy definite circumstances, and cold under others. The Jainas do not teach that being and non-being (of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the same thing. What they teach is that in a thing there is being of itself and non-being of other things, which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what it is not. Shankara, in fact, creates a man of straw, imputes to him imaginary doctrines and by refuting them, he knocks him down. That is his glory.”
Virchand Gandhi observes : "The Jainas, on the contrary, consider being and becoming as two different and complementary ways of our viewing the same thing. Reality in the Jaina view is a permanent subject of changing states. To be, to stand in relation to, to be active, to act upon other things, to obey law, to be a cause, to be a permanent subject of states, to be the same today as yesterday, to be identical in spite of its varying activities - these are the Jaina conceptions of reality. Mere becoming is as much an abstraction as mere being. In short, being and becoming are complements of the full notion of a reality".
He explains the two basic views : The substance view (dravyarthika naya) and the modal view (paryayarthika naya). Each view carried to the extreme denies the reality of the other. Each view then accepts the one at the expense of the other. One puts emphasis on the universal and the external aspect to the exclusion of the particular and changing aspect. The Shankara Vedanta represents the extreme form of the substance view and Buddhism represents the absolute modal view. The Jaina system reconciles these two opposing views by according equal status to the substance and it modes.
His erudite, spirited and lucid lectures captured the hearts of the audience. He realized that Americans were eager to know Jaina philosophy. So he stayed in America for nearly three years. He made it his mission to disseminate and spread the knowledge
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