Family and Nation

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya, A P J Abdulkalam
Publisher: Harper Publications India

Page 27

THE DYNAMICS OF INDIAN CULTURE
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for their existence. Just as the existence of sentient entities is independent and real, equally independent and real is the existence of non-sentient entities. The real entities of both—sentient (iva) and non-sentient (ajiva) constitute the Universe.
The Universe is without beginning and endless with respect to time. Sentience is not born of non-sentience nor is non-sentience born of sentience. The Jain philosophers believe that whatever is there in existence today existed in the past too and will continue to exist in the future. It is in the nature of fundamental reality that what was unreal a day before becomes real the following day and that which is real today may become unreal tomorrow. The basis of the creation of what we call the world is the process of transformation. There are only two constituents of the world, sentient and non-sentient. The rest are all their extensions.
The ultimate essence of philosophical thinking lies in the integrated trinity concerning the substances that are fit to be known (gyeya), fit to be abandoned (heya) and fit to be accepted (upadeya). From the Sankya standpoint, matter is fit to be abandoned and soul is fit to be accepted. From the Buddhist standpoint, suffering and the cause of suffering are both fit to be abandoned. And emancipation from suffering and the way of being emancipated from suffering are fit to be accepted. Jain philosophy endorses abandoning of matter and acceptance of soul.
INDIAN SCIENCE The scientists of the ancient tradition discovered the capability of the human mind to settle into a state of deep silence while remaining awake, and therein to experience a completely unified, simple, and unbounded state of awareness, called pure consciousness, which is quite distinct from our ordinary waking, sleeping, or dreaming states of