Jaina View of Life

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 57

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Jaina View of Life
circle." "All superstition is much the same, whether it be that of Astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgement or the like, in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more common.'
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(ii) The Idols of the cave are errors peculiar to the individual man. "For every one.. has a cave or den of his own, which refracts or discolours the light of nature.""" The judgements are vitiated by individual moods and the personal factor in the constitution of the mind. Some minds are synthetic, and some analytic. Some show unbounded enthusiasm for antiquity, some others eagerly embrace novelty. Only a few can have a just perspective. Truth has no parties.""
(iii) The Idols of the Market Place arise from the commerce and association of men with one another. They use language as the medium, but they forget that words are sometimes misleading, as they are imposed according to the understanding of the crowd. We in the present day have used the word 'socialism' without understanding the connotation of the word. Philosophers have used the phrases like "The Infinite", or "The first mover unmoved". But these are Fig-leaf phrases used to cover naked ignorance and perhaps indicative of a guilty conscience in the user.56
(iv) The Idols of the Theatre have migrated into men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophers and also from the wrong laws demonstration. All the systems of philosophy are so many stage plays representing worlds of their creation after an unreal and scenic fashion. And in the
52. Francis Bacon: Novum Organum: 1, 45
53. Ibid I, 48
54. Ibid I, 56
55. Ibid I, 55
56. Ibid I, 43