Lord Mahavira and His Times

SR No.: 011080
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 427
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 131

Teachings of Mahāvira
error, he contented himself with the four famous negative propositions: A is not B; A is not not-B;1 A is not both B and not-B, A is not neither B nor not-B.
It is with regard to these questions that Mahāvīra declared: "From these alternatives, you cannot arrive at truth; from these alternatives, you are certainly led to error." The world is eternal as far as that part is concerned which is the substratum of the (dravya) "world"; it is not eternal as far as its ever-changing state is concerned. In regard to such questions, Mahāvīra's advice to his disciples was neither to support those who maintained that the world is eternal nor those who advocated that it is not eternal. He would have said the same thing regarding such propositions as the world exists and it does not exist; the world is unchangeable; the world is in constant flux; the world has a beginning; the world has no beginning; the world has an end; the world has no end, etc. Those who are not well-instructed differ in their opinions and hold fast to their dogmas without reason.3 And these were precisely the questions which Buddha regarded as unthinkable on the ground that those who will think about them are sure to go mad, without ever being able to find a final answer, or to reach apodeictic certainty.*
If one has to answer such questions, one should answer them by saying, contrary to both a dogmatist and a sceptic, "It may be that in one sense, looking from one point of view, A is B. It may be that in another sense, looking from another point of view, A is not-B. It may again be that looking from a third point of view, A is both B and not-B. It may equally be that when viewed from a fourth point of view, A is neither B nor not-B."
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EXERTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Mahavira has given instructions regarding exertion of righteousness. Those who believe in it, accept it, practise it,
1. Dia. II, pp. 39-40; 75.
2. Sitra, II. 5.3.
3. Ácka. I. 7.3.
4. digu. II. p. S0.