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Absolute Negativism and Absolute Particularism
79
illusion is centred, must be true in the ultimate analysis. The charge of insincerity and want of seriousness of outlook that has been levelled against the Voidist by Akalankadeva does not seem to lack a substantial foundation.1
The defensive plea of the Voidist that the denial of existence and affirmation of non-existence are rendered possible by the sanction of conventional thought (sam vrti) stands in need of critical analysis. If the affirmation of existence in deference to convention means the affirmation that the thing in question exists in its own character quâ substance, in its own time, in its own place and in reference to its specific functional character (dravyakşetrakālabhāvātmanā), the Jaina would accept his position as correct. If again the negation of existence has reference to the opposite characteristics, that is to say, if a thing is denied to have existence in respect of the character of another thing having a different identity, a different spatio-temporal setting and functional character, the Jaina would also accept this predication of non-existence as correct. The assertion of existence in reference to its own context and denial of existence in reference to a different context, severally and in combination, are also admitted to be factual characterization of reals. If this be the real import of the Voidist's assertion of unreality of all things, there would be no ground to call in question the justice of his position. But the term 'conventional thought' (samvrti) has been given a different meaning. It is construed as thought which does not stand critical examination. The metaphysical speculations of philosophers have been subjected to a searching analysis by Nägārjuna and his followers, and self-contradictions have been discovered in them. The world of experience and the metaphysical systems that have been built upon the data of experience are, according to the Voidist, as unsubstantial and hollow as dream-experience is illusory, because like dream experience they do not stand the test of logical examination. But this plea of the Voidist also is to be condemned on the
1. parapratipadanārtham sastram upadeştāram vā varṇayan sarvam pratiksipati 'ti katham anunmattah ? tatra Sauddhodaner eva katham prajña "parādhini. babhūve 'ti vayam tāvad bahuvismayam āsmahe'.
As., pp. 116-17.
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