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Jaina Ethics motivated by beneficial intentions;1 (3) Truth is subservient to non-violence. Classification of truth
Truth and untruth are classified, sometimes according to their causes, sometimes according to their nature, and sometimes according to their intensity.
Amrtacandra has given four types of falsehood :2
(1) Denial of the existence of a thing with reference to its position, time and nature.
(2) Asserting the existence of a non-existent thing with reference to its position, time and nature.
(3) Representing a thing as something else.
(4) The fourth type of falsehood includes (a) Reprehensible speech (garhita) (b) Sinful speech (sāvadya) (c) Hurtful speech (apriya).
(a) A reprehensible speech includes back-bitting, joke, harsh, unbecoming, non-sensical and anti-canonical speech. (b) Sinful speech includes speech which prompts piercing, cutting, beating, ploughing, trading and stealing. (c) Hurtful speech causes unpleasantness, fear, pain, enmity, grief, quarrel or anguish in the mind of another person. The sinful speech includes what may be called the professional lie which is allowed for a householder.5 Speech causing ploughing or trading may not be considered as a lie at all ; but it has been called so because these professions involve violence.
Another classification, based on the mixture of truth and falsehood, is given by Somadeva: (1) satyasatya—wholly true, (2) asatyasatya--intermixture of truth and falsehood, the latter being predominant, (3) satyāsatya-intermixture of truth with falsehood, the former being predominant,
1. Cf. aawafa Tamache HT HAI
– Mahābhārata, 12.329.13. 2. Puruşārthasiddhyupāya, 91-96. 3. Ibid., 97. 4. Ibid., 97. 5. Ibid. 101. 6. Handiqui, K.K., Yasastilaka and Indian Culture, p. 265:
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