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Presidential Address
Section : JAINA LOGIC AND EPISTERMOLOGY
PROFF DAYANAND BHARGAVA
Distinguished scholars, learned delegates and lovers of Jaina tradition of philosophy !
I deem it a rare honour to have the opportunity of inaugurating the deliberations of the Section of Jaina Logic and Epistemology of first sessions of All India Association of Prakrit and Taina Studies in one of the oldest city of the world where the twenty third Tirthankara, Pārsvanātha, propogated the message of non-violence and truthfulness, the relevance of which was demonstrated in our own times by the Father of the Nation. Mahatma Gandhi.
Though, the Truth was declared to be superalogical by the Vedic tradition when the Kathopanişad said : ArafaETOOTTORIT, and by the Sramana tradition when the Ācārārga said : goà freisfa. JET Gry a fao; yet the Vedic tradition accepted Logic to be the substitute of a seer and the Sramana tradition claimed rationality to be the bed-rock on which the edifice of Jaina philosophy stands. Paradoxical though it may appear, the Truth which transcends logic can be known only through logic. Dr. Satkari Mookerjee in his preface to the, Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism' (p. X) rightly remarks: "Indian Philosophy does not stand by mysticism, though it culminated in it. But the mysticism is not the result of dogmatic faith. It is reasoned out of logical thought and is rather an overflow."
I
In fact, Dr. Mookerjee was the first modern scholar who not only realised that 'the philosophy of Syādváda has been more maligned than understood' but also took it upon himself to transvalue the ancient Jaina
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