Jain Journal 1973 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 20

OCTOBER, 1973
long is small or big. It can equally be predicated big as well as small. When compared with three inches long object the pencil is bigger, but the same pencil is smaller when described from the view-point of the object which is six inches long. We feel one thing cannot possess the quality of smallness and otherwise, but we can't help it. Our experience shows the hollowness of the onslaughts made upon this invincible philosophy of harmony and concord based upon the sound bed-rock of our experience. We should not try to reason against our experience. Fire is hot as is known from common experience. If somebody begins to argue that fire must be cold since its lustre is like that of the moon which is not hot, such jugglery does not serve the purpose of truth.
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This point must be borne in mind that different predications are not made from one and the same point of view. Truth perceived from different angles appears contradictory, but in reality those partial visions are complimentary. Professor Hajima Nakamura of Tokyo talking about the dilemma of East and West has made interesting observations, which show that truth is relative, "If East is East and West is West, which is East and which is West? India, which is East to the Americans has always been and will remain West to the Chinese and Japanese. Hiuen Tsang has entitled the diary of his Indian sojourn as the travel records in the West." (Amrit Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, 27-9-1966).
Take another example. Suppose one John dips his right hand into a bucket full of hot water and the left one in the icy cold water. Soon after he dips his both hands into a basin containing lukewarm water. What is the result? The right hand experiences cold, whereas the left hand gets the sensation of heat. The luke-warm water gave rise to two contradictory sensations. This simple example gives us a clue to appreciate the philosophy which opposes absolute and one-sided
predications.
Philosopher Hegel seems to support this system of thought when he says, "Every thing contains within itself its opposite. It is impossible to conceive of anything without conceiving anything of its opposite. A cow is a cow and is at the same time not a cat. A thing is itself only, because at the same time it is not something else. Every thesis for an argument has its anti-thesis. Truth lies on both sides of 'every question. The truth is either-sided. All nature is a reconciliation of opposites."
In the parable of seven blind-born persons it is said that they were describing various limbs of an elephant as the whole elephant. This made them quarrel. One who had touched the feet thought it like a