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INTRODUCTION.
exhaustive, adheres that of
view, though some people are led to imagine this onc-sided description to be exhaustive, as, for instance, is the case with Advaitism which adheres to the standpoint of qualities alone and neglects that of evolution. This kind of knowledge, though true from the particular point of view from which it is arrived at, is certainly not true from any other.
It is thus obvious that no piece of information, judgment, or scriptural text, can be relied upon to impart full knowledge of a thing, unless it is comprehensive enough to embrace the various descriptions thereof obtained from the different points of view. Jainism, therefore, warns us against falling a victim to imperfect information and being misled by it. Hence the importance which is attached to the philosophy of standpoints by the Jaina Metaphysicians.
The oft-quoted parable of the blindmen and the elephant is admissible here to illustrate the point under consideration. Each of these persons, desirous of knowing what an elephant was like, touched and felt a separate part of its body, and went home pleased with the information they derived concerning its form. They then sat down to compare notes, and soon discovered that there was no agreement among them as to the form of the animal. The man who had only touched its leg described it
