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beloved; or something beard of-heaven, hell, etc; or disorder of the humours-wind, bile, phlegm; some deity, favourable or otherwise; marshy land. Or merit may be the cause of a good dream; or demerit of an evil or inauspicious dream. This shows that even a dream is something positive; if that is so, how can we say that the world is void? (1702-1703).
Other reasons too can be adduced to show that dreams are positive in nature: Dream is positive, because it is of the nature of knowledge, like the knowledge of a jar; or dream is positive, because like a pot, it is brought about by instrumental factors any of those mentioned above (1701).
Morcover, if there were non-existence of everything, how could we distinguish between dream and non-dream, true and false; Gandharva-city (City of Illusion) and the city of Pataliputra; what is literally true (e. g. a real lion) and what is figurative (e. g. man-lion)? How could we speak in terms of effect, cause, what is to be established and what is the reason which establishes, doer, speaker, statement (whether it has three members in the syllogism or five) and what is to be stated (i. e. the intent of the statement)? And how could we accept one view as our own and say that the other view is another's. If everything were void, non-existent, how could we use such expressions even under the compulsion of practical necessity? And how could it have been determined that Earth is solid, Water fluid, Fire hot, Wind moving and Ether colourless (formless or incorporeal); and that sound, etc. are respectively the objects of the organ of hearing, etc.? (1705-7).
If everything were void or non-existent, everything should be alike and there could not be any classification of the type of dream-non-dream, etc.; or things could have been determined in just the opposite way a dream could have been non-dream and vice versa, or Water could have been solid and Earth fluid; or there should have been no cognition whatsoever in the absence of an object. If it is argued that all this nomenclature, etc. and inconsistency with respect to cognition, etc. are themselves due to bhranti, error or illusion, then the reply is that it is
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