Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 73

56
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
philosophy too. Originally it was only an idea and then became a philosophy. So what is philosophy in the real sense of the term ? When does a statement turn into a philosophy? Sometimes it is difficult to define exactly what we talk about. When we study certain things systematically, with an objective behind it, giving it a causal relationship between the subject and the effect, then it automatically comes under the purview of philosophy. Every incident in one's own life has a philosophy of its own. When I say that this is how I do something, then that becomes my philosophy. We very often ask, what is your philosophy in life? - May be to earn money, or to be kind to others etc. Throughout the history, the Jains have tried to prove how Ahimsă could become a religio-philosophy of life. People will not find fault with philosophy, because it gives a cause and effect relationship. Sometimes it is based on one's own experience.
In establishing Ahiṁsā as a valid philosophy, we will have to depend on Logic. The basic question of Logic isin what way do we consider something as right or wrong? We have five senses-cakşu, karna, jihvā, nāsikä and tvak- and whatever we sense through them we believe them. Some philosophies claim that what we see may or may not be true, but these five senses are our basic instruments of cognizance for pratyakşa. Some philosophies claim that our mind can be one of the organs by which we perceive a thing--knowledge. What is knowledge? Knowledge is a word we often use almost everyday. We often talk about the right knowledge, as Jainism does.
Actually, knowledge is a system of ideas corresponding to a system of things and involving a belief in such correspondences. There is basically three systems of ideas. You have an idea, say, of a chair or of a table, but if you have never seen one in your life you cannot have an idea, because you have no knowledge of either a table or a chair.