________________
184
indescribable. The Vedanta view that the world presents contradictory aspects is quite correct; but its conclusion therefrom is hardly warranted or understandablé. Instead of resorting to a purely negative way of putting matters, the Vedanta ought to have frankly admitted that the world is real in some respects i. o. in respect of its basic substance and is unreal in some respects i. e. in respect of the changes of the phenomena. This would have made its position clear and its conclusion understandable and would have avoided the hazy character of its theory of the world.
The Sunya-vada of the Buddhists, with all its negations, cannot be summarily dismissed by any serious thinker. It is correct when it states that 'an object does not exist '; it is also correct, when it points out that an object is not nonexistent;' it is not wrong, again, when it says that 'the object is neither existent nor non-existent ’; and finally, it is also right in maintaining that 'the object is not sometbing other than the existent and non-existent'. The Sunya-vāding form a purely negative view about an object from these premises. But it can be pointed out that each of those propositions is correct,-not absolutely but only in some respects. This is the Syadvāda way of viewing those facts, whereby the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
