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Chapter Four
ONTOLOGY OF ĀTMAN, THE SELF
“Access to truth demands the passage beyond the compass of ordered thought, and by the same token, the teaching of transcendent Truth can not be by logic, for what transcendent' means is the transcending (among other things ) of the bounding and basic logical laws of human mind.” H. Zimmer.
Truely, the ultimate reality, the final Truth is always beyond the reach of logic and reasoning. Reason and logic are the products of mind and the human mind, however advanced it may be, has its own limitations--Yard-stick which is limited, cannot measure up the unlimited. This has been repeatedly emphasised by Indian thinkers and it is only for that reason that they have always enphasised that to have the taste of the transcendental Truth Life' and not the 'logic' is the means of achievement. The great masters of the history of Indian philosophical thought, though have widely divergent views in their formulations of the essence of the ultimate Truth, but none-the-less, they are unanimous in proclaiming that the ultimate Truth is beyond description (Nama) and beyond any form ( Rūpa ). That is why, they preferred a negative course of describing it as 'Not this, Not this' ( Neti-Neti ).
Therefore, our attempt to show the existence of the self, the Ātman, by a metaphysical process, is bound to remain imperfect. This metaphysical process would, however, serve its purpose if it is able to kindle a desire to know further, to think further and then to perceive further. Comprehension, rather than conclusion, should be our aim.
The Ātman, known in Jaina terminology as “Jiva', is the corver-stone of Jaina philosophy. If sell is excluded
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