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JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
say that all the three concepts of husband, brother and son are subjective. But the Jain would say "No, all the notions are objective. The gentleman under consideration possesses all the three qualities, in different relations. The ladies made their choice according to their respective relations. There is no concept without relation. It can be asked : the first child at its birth cannot possess the quality of being a brother. But he comes to possess that quality when the second child is born. How, the second child, without any physical relation with the first can produce a new quality in the latter ? The Jain reply is that physical contact is not necessary for generating a quality. Thus, the sphere of objectivity, in Jainism, is so wide that it loses the very sense of it.
A question can be raised again; whether all the attributes of an object, the original as well as the derivative, stand on the same level of reality. In the example quoted above the attributes of being a husband, brother or son are not original. They have been derived from the relations with different persons. But, the quality of being a human being is original. If there is any difference between these two types of attributes, that must continue in knowledge also. It means that we shall have to make some distinctions between the knowledge of original qualities and the desired ones.
The Jaina reply is this: as far as the existance is concerned both stand on the same level. But, the pragmatic outlook creates an apparant gradation. To the 'child of a professor the factor of his being a father is 'more real than that of professorship. To his mother he
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