________________
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to write a few words in connection with the work of Shri Udaya Chandra Jain who is a mature scholar and experienced teacher. He is a scholar not only of Jainism but also of Buddhism and other Indian systems and his scholarship is reflected in this work which is a Hindi commentary on the Aptamimāmsā of Acharya Samantabhadra. The author has profusely drawn upon the Aștašati of Ācārya Akalanka as well the AştaSāhasri of Ācārya Vidyananda in his commentary. He has also availed of every opportunity to discuss other systems too. I am happy to say that he has done his job excellently well and deserves our congratulations.
Though Aptamimamsa is primarily concerned with the object of examining the problems concerning the Āpta (authoritative person ) its aim is also to lead us to syadvāda as it tries to distinguish between samyak upadeśa and mithya upadeśa. Jainism and Buddhism both reject the authority of the Vedas and both deny the existence of creator God, but both agree in accepting the authority of the Āpta. The question therefore arises as to who can be regarded as an Apta. The Jaina answer is that an Āpta is a person who has three qualities : he knows, he is free from raga-dveśa and is interested in the good of others. A person lacking any one of these virtues is likely to be unreliable consciously or unconsciously. The main problem here is concerning the knowledge of the Apta. Can any person who is less than omniscient be reliable ? It seams to us that anyone who is not omniscient can neither know the truth nor can he know what is really good. This is why it has become necessary for all religions to accept the possibility of omnicience whether as belonging to spiritually advanced souls or to Isvara.
The Mimāmsakas attribute omniscience to Vedas but reject the possibility of omniscience for man or any such being as Iśvara. Probably they fear that if the possiblity of human omniscience is accepted, the Vedas would become redundant. The advaitin admits
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
