Book Title: Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics
Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 208
________________ Matter 193 carnation has not of course been acceptable to the thinkers of other lands but the Indian doctrine that all evolutions enshrouding and attached to the psychical principle are due to subjective factors seems to be countenanced by a section of the voluntarists of the present day. The great philosopher, Schopenhauer with his celebrated theory of the bodily frame as "the objectification of the will” comes very near to the Indian doctrine when he says "Upon this (i.e. the objectification of the will) rests the perfect suitableness of the human and animal body to the human and animal will in general, resembling though far surpassing the correspondence between an instrument made for a purpose and the will of the maker and on this account appearing as design i.e. the teleological explanation of the body. The parts of the body must therefore completely correspond to the principal designs through which the will manifests: itself: they must be the visible expression of these desires. Teeth, throat and bowels are objectified hunger; the organs of generation are objectified sexual desire; the grasping hand and the hurrying feet correspond to the more indirect desires of the will which they express. As the human form generally corresponds to the human will generally, so the individual bodily structure corresponds to the individually modified will, the character of the individual and therefore it is throughout and in all its parts characteristic and full of expression”. This is almost stating in a different language the Indian doctrine in general that it is Karma which shapes our bodily frame and the Jaina theory in particular that the sense-organs, the bodily structure as a whole, its various limbs and sub-limbs, are respectively determined by the Jāti-karma, the Sarīra-karma and the Angopāngakarma. At the same time, it would be wrong not to notice the distinctions between Schopenhauer's principle of Will and the similar principles in the Indian philosophical systems. The Buddhistic doctrine of Tanhã as a subjective thirst striving for and expressing itself in objective realisation in Bhūta, Bhautika, Çitta, and Çaitta i.e. in material and conscious series, resembles Schopenhauer's Will; we miss in the 13 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430