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96
CRITIQUE OF AN AUTHORITY
syāt (meaning somehow') 1o whatever assertion one might happen to make. Another instructive thesis is that all assetion is at the same time a negation viz. the negation of its own opposite; (the doctrine of 'seven forms of assertion' is a particular - though, as we have seen, not an inevitable - corollary of this very thesis). Incidentally, the doctrine of 'seven forms of assertion' has been shown to have for its corollary the doctrine of 'substance'; thus from the fact that assertions can be made about a present, past or future state of affairs the conclusion is drawn that a real entity is of the form of a permanent substance possessed of an infinite number of modes, present, past and future. In this connection it might be useful to recall that the Jaina characterizes an entity as 'indescribable' in two senses, viz. (i) in the sense that it is impossible to simultaneously point out what this entity is and what it is not, and (ii) in the sense that this entity is of the form of a substance possessed of infinite modes which it is impossible for us to describe in their entirety; in the doctrine of seven forms of assertion' the formei sense of the word has been adopted, but the latter seems to be more appropriate on relatively less technical occasions.
Verse 114 इतीयमाप्तमीमांसा विहिता हितमिच्छताम्। सम्यग्मिथ्योपदेशार्थविशेषप्रतिपत्तये॥११४॥
Thus has the author composed the text called Aptamīmāṁsā with a view to enabling those who are desirous of doing good to themselves to distinguish between a true preaching and a false one. (114)
Note : Vasunandin reads hitamicchatā for hitamicchatām; on this reading the translation should be : 'Thus has the author, who is desirous of doing good (to others), composed the text called Aptamīmāṁsā with a view to enabling one to distinguish between a truc preaching and a false one.'
इति स्वोक्तपरिच्छेदे विहितेयमाप्तमीमांसा सर्वज्ञविशेषपरीक्षा निःश्रेयसकामिनाम्, अभव्यानां तदनुपयोगात् । तत्त्वेतरपरीक्षां प्रति भव्यानामेव नियताधिकृतिः ॥११४||
Comment on verse 114 This is the real concluding verse of the text, the verse 115 being, in all probability, a later interpolation.
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