________________
THE SIDDHANTA.
705
all other religions, but also rectifies their errors. It gives us a many-sided, and, therefore, necessarily true, view of things. It says:--
“The idea is not true; also the individual is not true. But they are both true from different points of view. When the speaker lays stress on the one, he is speaking of the many with only an implication. If the many are to the front, the one is not ignored but referred to only as secondary. The truth is neither in the one, nor in the muny; but it lies in the one in the many, or the many in the one. Every individual implies an idea, and every idea presupposes the individuals. Existence as well as knowledge are governed by this relativity. Being possessed of the qualities of existence, all things are one. So again looking at the modifications, or considering the differences due to material, place, time, and quality, it is manifest that every thing is different from every thing else, Transferring the same idea to modern philosophy, the subject is the origin of all knowledge, because he is the one in the many, and thus he it is that makes the many possible. Exactly the same consideration applies to the objects that give the subject all its contents. The subject differs from the objects by the rationality, and the objects are different from the subject by their Satswaroop, or the quality of being,'-- this is not tenable, since the subject also is characterised by the Satswaroop. The difference would deprive both the knower and the known of their reality. If the knower is without Satta, the known would be non-existent. If the known is Asat, the knower, who is constituted by the known, would also become Asat. So in reality or Satta, there is no disparity between the subject and the object. The difference is only Kuthanchit, i.e., here, from the standpoint of rationality residing in the one and materiality residing in the many."*
It is this view which we have been elaborating slowly in the preceding pages, and there can be no doubt but that this is also the view which accounts for the element of incompatibility and discord in different religions. For instance, we can see that
*
An Introduction to Jainism' by N. Rangaji.
53
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
