Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 43

JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XXXVIII, NO. 3 JAN. 2004
few days and a little later becomes a tree with branches, leaves etc. In course of time, it decays and dies. So it has three stages, but the basic seed is the same, it never dies. Let us take another example of clay-'myttikā. A potter makes a pot out of clay and when the pot is destroyed, it once again turns into earth, so, in fact, the clay is never destroyed. It remains only mud; that which is made out of clay is destroyed. This was the idea put forth by Umāsvāti in the 3rd century A.D.
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These ideas over a period of time became their philosophy too. Originally it was only an idea and then became a philosophy. So what is philosophy in the real sense of the term? When does a statement turn into a philosophy? Sometimes it is difficult to define exactly what we talk about. When we study certain things systematically, with an objective behind it, giving it a causal relationship between the subject and the effect, then it automatically comes under the purview of philosophy. Every incident in one's own life has a philosophy of its own. When I say that this is how I do something, then that becomes my philosophy. We very often ask, what is your philosophy in life? - May be to earn money, or to be kind to others etc. Throughout the history, the Jains have tried to prove how Ahimsa could become a religio-philosophy of life. People will not find fault with philosophy, because it gives a cause and effect relationship. Sometimes it is based on one's own experience.
In establishing Ahimsa as a valid philosophy, we will have to depend on Logic. The basic question of Logic is-in what way do we consider something as right or wrong? We have five senses- caksu, karṇa, jihvā, nāsikā and tvak - and whatever we sense through them we believe them. Some philosophies claim that what we see may or may not be true, but these five senses are our basic instruments of cognizance for pratyakṣa. Some philosophies claim that our mind can be one of the organs by which we perceive a thing knowledge. What is knowledge? Knowledge is a word we often use almost everyday. We often talk about the right knowledge, as Jainism does.
Actually, knowledge is a system of ideas corresponding to a system of things and involving a belief in such correspondences. There are basically three systems of ideas. You have an idea, say, of a chair or of a table, but if you have never seen one in your life you cannot have