Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
After giving an introductory account of Western Idealism we, now, come to the Idealistic Schools of India. Mahāyāna Buddhism and Advaita Vedānta are the most important schools of Indian Idealism. Mādhyamika School of Buddhism :
According to this school, reality is beyond the four categories of thought.' Human intellect cannot grasp reality. What we grasp is the prapañca, and not the paramartha. If we put this idea in the technical language of Buddhism, we can say that the human knowledge is confined to the samvştisatya, i.e., to the phenomenal reality. It is unable to grasp the paramārtha-satya, i. e. the noumenal reality. The phenomenal reality is svabhāva-śünya, i.e., devoid of self-existence. The noumenal reality is prapañca-śūnya, i. e., devoid of plurality. Some scholars are of the view that the word śūnya is synonymous with Nihilism and they draw the conclusion that the school of Mādhyamika Buddhism is Nihilistic. According to the opinion of other scholars, this view is not correct. They are of the opinion that the word śünya must be interpreted in the sense of svabhāva-śünya and prapanca-śünva. As it is remarked by an eminent exponent of the system : 'The Buddha preached reality (dharma) considering two types of truth. The first type is the Phenomenal Truth and the second one is the Noumenal Truth.'The empirical world is the phenomenal reality, while the ultimate truth is the noumenal reality. 'The ultimate truth is intuitional, peaceful, devoid of plurality, indeterminate and one. This is the nature of reality." Yogācāra School of Buddhism :
This school advocates vijñānādvaita-vāda. According to it, as is generally believed, only momentary ideas are real. It is only because of this belief that the system is regarded as
1. Catuşkotivinirmuktam tattvam mādh vamikā viduh. 2. Madhyamika-kärika, XXIV. 8. 3. Ibid., XVIII. 9.