________________
110
Paryaya, it is non-eternal. Keeping in view this fact of the difference of contexts, one is fully justified in asserting in the manner of the fourth predication that the Dravya is both eternal and non-eternal.
The same muy be said of the categories of difference and identity, applicable to an object, It is true, as Ramānuja points out that to one and the same animal, the attributes of horse-hood and buffalo-hood are inapplicable. The animal which is a horse is not a buffalo. The former animal is possessed of the features of a horse which are different from the features of a buffalo. In this sense, of course one being is different from another. But this does not mean that the two beings are absolutely different from each other. A horse is certainly different from a buffalo in regpect of the distinctive features: of each but with respect to the common attribute of animality they are the same. It is thus only a question of viewpoints. In some respects a being is different from another and in some respects, it is the same as the other, as pointed out in the fourth predication,
Ramānuja’s manner of defending the funda. mental doctrine of his own philosophy is not clear. The Brahma of his philosophy is said to be one; he is also looked upon as the soul of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
