Faith Knowledge and Conduct

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
class of men who practise medicine. The difference between the bhava nikshepa and this form of naya lies in the fact that the term (e.g., doctor) is used in the former as the name, but in the latter as the description of a person or a class.
Gross errors with reference to these nayas are committed when the special significaney and sense in which words are employed is forgotten, and further conclusions are drawn from the statements embodying them indiscriminately. We shall now illustrate some errors typical of each of these seven nayas:
(1) It will be an error of the first naya to conclude from the statement that today is the nirvana-day of the Tirthamkara Mahāvīra that he actually attained nirvāṇa today.
(2) With reference to the second naya it will be false to say, with regard to the statement that the soul is divine by nature, that every unredeemed soul is a divinity in manifes
tation.
(3) With reference to the third naya, it will be mischievous to confound the individual with the class, and to generalise on the basis of a solitary instance.