Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

Author(s): Siddhasena Divakar, Vinayvijay, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 308

Introduction
197
under consideration. Each of these persons, desirous of knowing what an elephant was like, touched and felt a separate part of its body, and went home pleased with the information they derived concerning its form. They then sat down to compare notes, and soon discovered that there was no agreement among them as to the form of the animal. The man who had only touched its leg described it as a huge column; the one who had felt the ear as a winnowing fan; and so forth. They soon came to words and then to blows; and still no one was willing to admit that he was in the wrong. At last, there appeared another man on the scene who was not blind; and he was with difficulty able to pacify them and settle their disputes by convincing them of their partial knowledge.
The lesson to be learnt from this instructive parable is that unless all the different aspects of a thing have been enquired into and studied, the partial knowledge based on any one aspect alone is liable to lead us into error and conflict with others.
All the confusion of thought which is prevailing in the world is thus the outcome of inexhaustive research, and of the acceptance of a part for the whole. A single instance would suffice to satisfy the reader that most, even if not all, of our disputes only betray the pig-headedness of the blind men of the parable in ourselves. For a long time past a keen controversy has been raging among philosophers as to the nature of will, some holding that it is free, others denying it. As a matter of fact, both parties are right, but only from their respective standpoints. If we approach the question from the point of view of the nature of will, that is to say, in respect of its natural