________________
•
according to Vachaspati, yields only an empirical knowledge). But such empircal knowledge does not yield the reality. If mere empirical knowledge could yield reality, then the cognition of oysters, the perception of a desert mirage etc., would have yielded a real rope, water etc.. If experiential apprehension were the knowledge of reality, the recognition of the Body as the Soul (as is the function of empirical knowledge) would have been the knowledge of reality and thereby the popular realism would be introduced with the consequent agnosticism. Careful discussion, on the contrary, would reveal that the recognition of the body as the soul is contradicted by reason and so is the many-sided world of our experience.'
123
در
Jain Education International
Of course, the Jainas would not agree that the scope of the Syad-vada is limited within the investigation of the nature of the world of our empirical experience and that the transcendental reality is beyond its reach. They would also repudiate the view of Vachaspati that left to itself, the Syad-vada leads to popular agnosticism. But that is not the point here. The point to note here is how while according to Sankara,
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
