Book Title: Gandharavada
Author(s): Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha

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Page 167
________________ features, viz. movement, etc. on the one hand, and bird's nest, climbing creapers, etc. on the other. But man and trunk of a tree are both existent. It is not necessary that both should be found on the same spot; the other one may be anywhere in the world, but the fact remains that that regarding which there is a doubt must be an existent thing. This should not be interpreted to mean that it establishes the existence of ass's horn, as it has been stated that the thing must be existent somewhere — there or elsewhere. When we doubt the existence of the ass's horn, when we say, 'The ass's horn does not exist,' we only inean that the horn is not found on the ass, but it is present on the bull's head and therefore there is no difficulty. Similarly if anyone mistakes a trunk of a tree for a man, this error too is possible only when 'man' exists, not otherwise. If as Indrabhūti has said people have the conception of soul in the body erroneously, that is to say, regard the boily as soul it cannot be explained otherwise than by positing the existence of the soul (1571--1572). We negate the jiva when we say ‘non-jīva' (ajīva). Therefore, the counter-positive of ‘non-jīva' must exist. The rule is that if an entity denoted by an etymologically derived, pure (uncompounded) word is negated, this negation always implies the existence of its counter-positive; e. g. in aghata, ghata is a word which is both etymologically derived and uncompounded; it is negated and ghata is an existent thing. Similarly in the case of ajiva, jīva must be an existent thing. If the counter positive does not exist one may take it for granted that the word · is not etymologically derived and uncompounded, e. g. fakharavişāņam, 'non-ass-horn' (ass-born can be etymologically, explained, but it is not uncompounded) and 'adittha', 'non-dittha' (Dittha is uncompounded, but it cannot be etymologically explained, hence Dittha need not necessarily exist). But as pointed above, the jīva must be existent, for in ajīva we have the negation of an entity denoted by an etymologically derived, uncompounded word. Moreover the very fact that Indrabhūti says, 'The soul does not exist' presupposes the existence of jīva, Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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