Aptamimansa Critique of an Authority Bhasya

Author(s): Samantbhadracharya, Akalankadev, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Jagruti Dilip Sheth Dr

Page 59

CRITIQUE OF AN AUTHORITY of an entity implies 'nonbeing', the verse 18 how ‘nonbeing' quâ the character of an entity implies 'being'; the conclusion ought to be that the two characters are "equivalent” (in the terminology of modern logic).' This should explain why there is virtually no difference between the empiricist Buddhist's position that 'nonbeing' is not a character over and above "being' and the Jaina's position that 'being' and 'nonbeing' are two such characters as imply each other. Samantabhadra's illustrations point in the same direction. For he argues that being' quâ the character of an entity implies ‘nonbeing just as 'presence-in homologues' quâ the character of a probans implies 'absence-in-aheterologue'; similarly, he argues that 'nonbeing' quâ the character of an entity implies 'being' just as 'absence-in-a-heterologue' quâ the character of a probans implies ‘presence-in-homologues'. Now the students of Logic know that when precisely formulated the two characters in question of a probans turn out to be equivalent. At any rate, these verses should make it further clear that the Jaina's ascription of both being' and 'nonbeing' to an entity is not a case of selfcontradiction.
Verse 19 विधेयप्रतिषेध्यात्मा विशेष्यः शब्दगोचरः । साध्यधर्मो यथा हेतुरहेतुश्चाप्यपेक्षया॥१९॥
Whatever is a qualificand amenable to verbal utterance is possessed of the characters "being' as well as ‘nonbeing' (lit. is capable of being posited as well as negated), just as an attribute belonging to the locus-ofprobandum will be a probans or not a probans depending on conditions (i.e. depending on what happens to be the probandum in a particular case). (19)
किञ्चित् केनचित् विशिष्टं गृह्यमाणं विशेषणविशेष्यतत्सम्बन्धलोकस्थितिसंकलनेन गृह्येत नान्यथेत्यभिनिवेशेऽपि वस्तुनो विधिप्रतिषेधस्वभावयोः प्रत्येकं दर्शनमवश्यंभावि। ततो विधिप्रतिषेधौ आत्मानौ विशेषस्य सविकल्पकत्वं साधयतः। ततःसामान्यविशेषात्मकं
1. As a matter of fact, the characters 'being' and 'nonbeing' here spoken of are equivalent in an even more intimate sense. For if the former of these be represented as 'bcing x' the latter will be represented as 'not being not-x', and it is easy to see that being r' and 'not being not-x' are well-nigh equivalent even in the ordinary sense of the term.