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Non-dualism and Dualism
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from another perspective. The essence of its philosophy is that Brahma is also non-eternal and the world is also eternal. The co-existence of the eternal and the non-eternal is thought to be contradictory by some philosophers and so they tried to prove that Jain philosophy itself is an illusion. But Jain philosophers do not accept this allegation. According to them, there is great scope for reconciliation in the nature of a substance - there is no contradiction here. The contradiction lies in our vyavaharik perspective. A substance is defined both through the naischik and the vyavaharik perspective. Acharya Hemchandra wrote in praise of Bhagavan Mahavira that those who do not know your thoughts think of the space as eternal and the lamp as non-eternal. The space remains the same and so it is eternal. Every moment the flame of the lamp flickers, that is the old dies out and the new is born. With a puff of the wind the lamp is extinguished and so it is non-eternal. Mahavira's philosophy is different. According to this just as space is eternal so is the lamp; and as the lamp is non-eternal, so is space. This is the principle of relativity. No substance can violate this principle: The lamp is only a mode. It may be extinguished but its basic substance that is pudgal does not perish. Space is also a basic substance and so it also does not perish, but space in the form of a pot, cloth, house is all only its modes. They keep originating and perishing. When we see space as only the basic substance then it seems to be only eternal. When we see the lamp only in its present mode we think of it as non-eternal. But nothing is completely bereft of the basic substance. So, to say space is also non-eternal and
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