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120 First Steps to Jainism
acters are different and distinct. ....... The Jaina differs from them all and maintains that universal and the particular are only distinguishable traits in a real, which is at once identical with and different from both." (JPN p.13)
It is, however, necessary to notice that :
"There is a difference - and intrinsic difference at that - between a manifested and an unmanifested real. ....... They are identical and different both - identical in so far as it is the same substance and different in so far as it undergoes a change of characteristic. This is the Jaina position of nonabsolutism." (JPN, p.39.)
"A real is not entirely expressible in all its aspects and modes. But it is not inexpressible altogether. A real being a multiple entity is expressible and inexpressible both in reference to different aspects; it is expressible in so far as it partakes of a universal and is inexpressible so far as it is a unique individual."' (JPN., p. 113.)
"The unique individuality of a real is not accessible to conceptual thought and, hence, to language, but it is reached by an analysis of the nature of reality as it is apprehended in perception; we have tried to prove, following the guidance of the Jaina philosophers, that the nature of reals, on analysis, has been found to exhibit the following traits, viz., existence, non-existence and inexpressibility." (JPN, 127.)
5. Relational Aspects
5.1. Relational aspects have received special notice in Jaina logic.
"Everything is related with every other thing, and this relation involves the emergence of a relational quality. The qualities cannot be known a priori, though a good number of them can be deduced from certain fundamental characteristics." (JPN, p.3) ......."A real is only a part of a system knitted together by a network of relations, from which it cannot be divorced." (JPN, p. 109.) "Every real is thus hedged round by a network of relations and attributes, which
1. It may be noted that a single or unique individual as such (that is without any
relation to a ''population" or "universe") has no meaning in modern statistical or probability theory.
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