________________
Approach to Reality
43
plays of this philosophic theatre you may observe the same thing which is found in the theatre of poets, that stories invented for the stage are more compact and elegant, and more as we would wish them to be, than true stories out of history. The world as Plato described it is merely a world constructed by Plato, and pictures of Plato rather than the world.57
We shall never get far along the path of truth if these idols are still tied to us. We should free ourselves from the subjective elements in the pursuit of truth. Truth is not any man's monopoly. It is universal and objective. The philosophers and the seers from times immemorial have striven to reach the highest through the means of reason and intuition. Reason leads us to the understanding of empirical reality, while it is the highest experience which leads us to the Truth. Francis Bacon had the limited objective of providing the methodology of scientific investigation. Acarya Samantabhadra has taken the perspective of spiritual reality and has shown the pitfalls in the path to self-realisation. It is the seers; the Ṛsis, who constitute the leaders of thought, and like kindly light they lead us on. Such enlightened ones or the 'sages' are the first hand exponents of philosophy.58
57. Will Durant: The Story of Philosophy
(The pocket library 1960) p. 134
58. Aldous Huxley : Perennial Philosophy (1959) pp. 10, 11.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
