Introduction to Jainsim

Author(s): Dewan Bahadur A B Lathe
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 76

JAINISM
consists essentially in struggle and consequently, pantheism, which by hypothesis makes struggle absurd, destroys the basis of moral conduct. Then again, the school which inherits the practical legacies of Vedant is the school that advises man to "defend his wife at the expense of his wealth and to defend himself at the expense of his wealth and wife” Surely this is not a doctrine to be championed by moral philosophy.
The logical successor of this Vedantic Idealism, is the Njaya school. It occupies the exact opposite of Advaitism by holding that everything is seperated from everything else. If Adwaitism may be called the Nominalism of India, this may fitly deserve the title of Realism. While the former insists on the one being true, the latter insists on the many being true. The idea is the truth; this Platonic maxim may be applied to explain vedant. The individual is the reality; this is the thesis of the Naiyayiks. Jainism sets itself against every Ekant doctrine and evolves the truth by a combination of them. We have above shown that idealism is an empty generalisation without the individuals to be generalised. The antithesis may be similarly refuted. If every individual is independent, at least this individuality is a common property of all, e.g., materiality is the property common to ETE, qe, etc. If not so, being devoid of individuality, their independence also would be lost. Although individuals are seperate, individuality is a property residing upon all in common and hence, even individuals are homogeneous by their common property. Thus even the individualism of the Naiyayiks is vitiated by the very pre-soppositions of their own school.
This will bring out the standpoint of Jain logic. The idea is not true; also, the individual is not true. What is the truth? They are both true -from different points of view. When the speaker lays stress on the one, he is speaking of the many with