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JAINISH AND WORLD PROBLEMS
at the same time it is also absolutely true that the real man, the soul, in its real nature, is unperishing. Thus S is P and also not P. The question is really one of standpoints. If both the statements proceed from the one and the same standpoint, then one of them inust necessarily be false ; but not so if they proceed from two different standpoints, as in the above instance. There are seven kinds of statements which appear to be contradictory, but are reconcilable to one another. The chart of the Sapta-bhangi (seven-limbed) predication marks the limits within which seeming contradiction is not necessarily real. This chart is necessary when studying a perfect Metaphysical System like the Jaina Siddhanta (philosophy), wbich describes things from inany standpoints; and there is great danger of being lost without its aid.
For metaphysical requirements, the Shadvada Siddhanta is made to rest on a Logic which is at once simple and natural, and unerring. There is really only one rule of Logic to be learnt: Whenever you have a fixed unalterable Law (or rule) to go upon, you may base your deduction on the strength of it, and it will be always true. If a deduction is inade in defiance of such a rule, it will be false ; but if there be no rule one way or the other to guide the mind, and a conclusion' is hazarded, it will be pure guess-work, and unreliable as such. For instance, on seeing smoke we may infer the existence and presence of fire near about, because it is an unalterable Law of Nature that smoke always arises froin fire. But if a man say that he was born fifty years old, that will be a foolsehood, because the rule is to the contrary, since no one is born old. And it will a pure worthless conjecture to say that a certain man will make 100,000 rupees in his trade on his next birth-day.
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