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JAINISM
173 mode of predication (sapta-bhangi), which stops at giving us the several partial views together, without attempting to overcome the opposition in them by a proper synthesis. It is all right so far as it cautions us against one-sided conclusions, but it leaves us in the end, as it has been observed, with little more than such one-sided solutions. The reason for it, if it is not prejudice against Absolutism, is the desire to keep close to common beliefs. The doctrine hesitates to deny anything that is familiar. But at the same time its partiality for common views does not mean acquiescence in all popular beliefs, as is clear from its repudiation of the idea of God in the accepted sense. The truth is that the primary aim of Jainism is the perfection of the soul, rather than the interpretation of the universe-a fact which may be supported by the old statement that asrava and samvara constitute the whole of Jaina teaching, the rest being only an amplification of them. As a result we fail to find in it an ultimate solution of the metaphysical problem. Proceedings of the First Indian Philosophical Congress (1925). p. 133.
* Asravo bhava-hetuh syāt samvaro mokşa-karanam: Itiyam arhati dpstiranyadasyāḥ prapancanam (SDS. P. 39).
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