Jainism Precepts and Practice

Author(s): Puranchand Nahar, Krishnakant Ghosh
Publisher: Caxton Publications

Page 76

erists in relation to and distinction from some
AN EPITOME OF JAINISM partial and dogmatic view of the reality as it overlooks one important truth viz., the world is a system of interrelated parts in which nothing is so self-identical, self-complete as we suppose the jar to be Every thing which is, exists only in relation to and dis
tinction from something else The jar exists Every thing there, not alone as a self-complete reality but
exists in relation to and distinction from what thing else,
is not-jar In fact, the existence of the jar as a self-complete unity is possible only because it differentiates from what is not-jar If, on the other hand, it looses its distinction and merges in the rest that is not-jar, then how can it present its own self-subsisting and identical character We may, therefore, well state that because it keeps itself in distinction from what is nol-jar, and yet bears at the same time essential relation to it as the principle of mutual reciprocity postulates that it can lead a life of self-completeness, self-identity But this self-completeness cannot obviously be absolute in character simply for the reason that it has to depend for its existence upon other things from which it rigidly distinguishes itself and yet stands
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