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DEPENDENCE AND INDEPENDENCE
Comment on verse 73
In this verse Samantabhadra comes out against two doctrines which he considers to be extremist. They are (i) the doctrine that an entity and an attribute of it are absolutely dependent on each other, and (ii) the doctrine that an entity and an attribute of it are absolutely independent of each other. Really speaking, Samantabhadra here has in mind the empiricist Buddhist and the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika, the former insofar as he maintains that to distinguish in an empirical phenomenon an entity and an attribute of it is a mere usuage, the latter insofar as he maintains that to distinguish in an empirical phenomenon an entity and an attribute of it is to distinguish two independent realities. An impartial reader will however feel that in this connection the empiricist Buddhist, the Nyāya-Vaiseṣika and the Jaina are maintaining a virtually identical position even if each uses a set of terminologies that is peculiar to himself. In any case, in view of Samantabhadra's earlier polemics against the empiricist Buddhist and the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika it should not be much difficult to follow his present arguments urged against the same opponents.
Verse 74 विरोधान्नोभयैकात्म्यं स्याद्वादन्यायविद्विषाम् । अवाच्यतैकान्तेऽप्युक्तिर्नावाच्यमिति युज्यते ॥७४॥
The enemies of the logic of syādvāda can also not maintain that the two (viz. 'absolute dependence' and 'absolute independence') characterize one and the same phenomenon, for such a position will be self-contradictory. And if they maintain that the phenomena that are there are absolutely indescribable, then even to say that a phenomenon is indescribable becomes an impossibility on their part. (74)
67
अनन्तरेकान्तयोः युगपत् विवक्षा मा भूत्, विप्रतिषेधात्, सदसदेकान्तवत् । तथाऽनभिधेयत्वैकान्तेऽपि । इति कृतं विस्तरेण ॥७४||
Comment on verse 74
This verse literally repeats the verse 13 and serves in the present section the same purpose as the latter does in the first.
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