New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

Author(s): Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers

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144 New Dimensions in Jaina Logic
absolutely independent in their relationship with one another, which explains their existence in the context of the universe as a whole.
The determination of the laws of pervasion or concomitance is possible only on the basis of the principle of relativism. The laws of the gross world are not applicable to the working of the subtle world. The analysis of the nature of the universe in its cosmic and supra-cosmic aspects has been explained from two different nayas or standpoints. The truth in its subtle or ultimate nature is to be studied through niscayanaya (ultimate or scientific standpoint), whereas the gross or the external world is explained through vyavahāra naya (the pragmatic or the practical standpoint). The dictum 'the self is the doer of its own karman'-is acceptable to all the spiritualist philosophers, but this is only a commonplace statement and the formula represents pragmatic or practical view point. It cannot be the formula of the ultimate or the scientific standpoint, because the real in its ultimate nature is the doer of its own nature. The self is a conscious substance and, therefore, it can be the doer of a mode that is conscious. The karman, on the other hand, is material and as such is heterogeneous and quite different from the self in nature. And as there cannot be any relationship between two principles of diverse nature, the self cannot be the doer of karman which is quite unlike the latter. Had the self been the real doer of the karman, it would never achieve freedom from it. The proposition 'the self is the doer of karman'is, therefore, only a pragmatic and commonplace statement, couched in a language expressive of the pragmatic standpoint.
Some bodies are felt heavy and some others light, but heaviness and lightness are dependent on the location of those bodies in space at different distance from another body on account of the Law of Gravitation. A body loses its weight as soon as it crosses the field of gravitation.
Sometimes we determine the nature of an entity with reference to its length and breadth. This is understandable with reference to a material body, but such determination is impossible of the immaterial or the formless entity, there being no length and breadth. It occupies space but does not obstruct it. Length and breadth are, therefore, relative to a material object. When the energy in the form of heat is transformed into motion, its quantity remains constant. This is the first principle of 'thermodynamics'. The