Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 179

162 Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda
Opposition The fountain-head of all this logical controversy is the estimation of the relation between being and non-being. The formulations of the Laws of Thought are inspired by the belief that there is innate opposition between being and non-being-an opposition which is absolutely incapable of dissolution. But the Jaina philosopher is unable to appreciate the raison d'etre of this belief. Opposition (virodha), according to him, is exhausted by the following three types of relation, none of which can be shown to obtain betwen being and non-being.26
The first type of oppositional relation is represented by the relation of destruction, which obtains between the destroyable and the destroyer, e.g., between snake and mongoose, or fire and water. The destruction in such cases is possible only when two coexistent positive facts come together into collision and the one overpowers the other. There is not such relation of destruction between being and non-being, as the two, according to the opponent himself, do not coexist in a common substratum even for a moment. If, however, the two are admitted to coexist in a common substratum, none would destroy the other, because both are equally powerful on account of their independent and equally powerful origin.
The second type is represented by the relation of non-coexistence, which obtains between characteristics originating at different moments of time; e.g., between greenness and yellowness of the selfsame mango at different moments of its existence. Yellowness in this context can only succeed greenness and can never coexist with it. This type of opposition also does not hold good between being and non-being. The characteristic of non-beign cannot succeed the characteristic of being in the same sense as yellowness succeeds greenness. Non-being cannot inherit the locus of being, because the locus of being has ceased to exist along with the cessation of being. And non-being without a locus is as ununderstandable as square-circle. The logical difficulties of pure being and pure non-being have already been discussed.27
The third type of oppositional relation is represented by the relation of obstruction, which obtains between the obstructed and the obstructor (pratibandhya-pratibandhaka); e.g., the conjunction of a fruit with its stalk obstructs the gravitation of the fruit towards
26. TV, iv. 42 (18). 27. Vide supra.