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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
"Is the body, O Lord, identical with the soul or different ? The body, O Gautama, is identical with the soul as well as different from it."?
Similarly, we have numerous dialogue regarding the problem, “whether universal and absolute non-violence is good or bad ?"2 “Whether to sleep or to remain awake is good ?”3 “Whether to be weak or strong ?"4 Whether the Jīvas are mobile or not ?"'5 "Whether the soul is powerful or powerless", and so on. And the replies of Mahavira are always conditional and double, which are also correct, because there is actual reference and experience.
A thing is neither real nor unreal, neither eternal nor noneternal, neither static nor mobile, neither small nor big in the absolute sense but has dual nature. This is no offence to the Laws of thought because two-valued logic seems to unreal if there is loyalty to experience. There is no brass tracks in life or logic. Take for example, the case of being and becoming or identity and difference. It is presupposition of difference that the 'identity' of a thing undergoing change is maintained. Change is meaningless without the idea of persistence. Hence, the contradiction between them is only so-called and illusory. The denial of pre-non-existence
1. Bhagavatt Sūtra, XIII. 7.495. 2. Ibid, VII. 2. 270. 3. Ibid, XII, 2. 443. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid, XXV.4. 6. Ibid, I. 8. 72. 7. For an elaborate discussion of the Jaina theory of mani
foldness of reality, reference may be made to Syadvadamañjarī of Mallisena with Anyayoga-Vyavaccheda-Dvātrimśika of Hemcandra (Ed.) A. B. Dhruva (Poona : B. O. R. I., 1933 ) and Anekanta-Jaya-Pataka of Haribhadra Sūri (ed.) H, R. Kapadia ( 2 Vols. ), Gaekawad Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960, etc.
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