Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 95

Jatia Philosophy
71
thinking. All the paths oi Jainism are based only on conduct and otřics. In the matter of philosophical thinking, no remarkable difference is found till to-day. Not only in the history of Aryan philosophical thought, but in the history of all human philosophi. cal thinking, there is not a single such example of just the same stream being present in philosophical thinking. Eastern and Western Philosophy- A Comparison
A philosophy might be eastern or western, we can see in the histories of all philosophics that philosophy does not confine itself only to speculations on the world, the Jiva and the isvara, dach philosophy takes up the question of conduct in each region. One way or other, to a greater or lesser degree, every philosophy covers up the analysis of life. There is of course some difference in this matter in the development of castern and western philosophies. Greek philosophy starts just with the questions regarding the nature of the universe. Later on it gets associated with Christianity, and the question of analysis of life is added to it. After this it is that analysis of life occupies a very important place in one branch of western philosophy. Right up to the modern days we find that in the Roman Catholic sect philosophical ibinking is associated with analysis of life. In the history of Aryan philosophy we find one unique feature. It is that the very starting point of Aryan philosophy is the question of analysis of life. In the three principal branches of Aryan philosophy-Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina --apalysis of life is associated with thinking on the problems of the universe in almost the same manner. No philosophy in Aryāvarta experiences a sense of fulfilment with analysis only of the problems of the universe. On the contrary, we find that each principal philosophy or a branch theroof lays down its peculiar thoughts on the world, Jiva and isvara and then invariably analyses the problems of life and cod in revealing the process of analysis of life. We therefore find that every Āryan philosophy in its original Scripture begins with liberation as the aim and ends in the same. That is precisely the reason why the Samkhya philosophy holds its owo typical Yoga and is inseparable from the Yoga philosophy. Similarly