Jain Journal 2007 10

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

Page 28

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF JAIN NYAYA (DOCTRINE OF RIGHT JUDGMENT)
Dr Veer Sagar Jain
0.0 Preamble
There are infinite objects in this universe and each object has infinite states/modes. What to talk about knowing the complete truth about all the objects and their infinite states for a person like us, we cannot even know the entire truth even about one object. Only an omniscient can know the truth in its entirety. However, the Jains say that we can know the whole truth about one or more objects provided we become free from knowledge-obscuring flaws like attachment, aversion and delusion. The Jains say so because these flaws cause insistence on one's partial knowledge as complete and negation of other's true knowledge as false. The Nyaya doctrine of the Jains enables one to arise above these flaws (i.e. attachment, aversion and delusion) and start the enquiry for true knowledge of an object. This fact can be clarified by the following example:
A child is suffering from tooth decay problems.. His mother forbids him from eating sweets as these aggravate tooth decay. However, when a guest comes to his home, he brings chocolates for the child and asks him to eat and enjoy. The mother again stops the child from eating the chocolates. The child starts considering his mother as his enemy and the guest as his well-wisher even though the child in his heart knows that eating chocolate is harmful to him. Later on, the doctor explains the whole process of tooth decay and how sweets aggravate this decay. Knowing this, the child starts respecting his mother as his true well-wisher. So the Nyaya doctrine enables the inquirer of truth to rise above the flaws of attachment, aversion and delusion and see the object in its true perspective.