Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

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RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS
of other things, which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what it is not. Sankara, in fact, creates a man of straw, imputes to him imaginary doctrines, and by refuting them, he knocks him down. That is his glory." He aptly quotes Ganaratnasūri to bring out the importance of Syädvāda: "Although the various schools of philosophy, through sectarian bigotry, differ from and contradict one another, still there are certain aspects of truth in them which would harmonize if they were joined into an organic whole. .. The different aspects of truth accepted by these sectarians, when related to one another, all together become one Grand Truth; but, if they do not join hands, they contradict one another, and in so doing they are changed into the flower of the sky' which is not a real thing but an illusion of the mind."
In Chapter 4 Gandhi expounds the Jaina conception of soul. Consciousness is the essence of the soul. As the soul is not something physical, it has no physical qualities, viz. colour, taste, etc. So it is not amenable to sense perception. It is fundamentally different in nature from matter. Gandhi raises a question : How can that soul live in matter (physical body) when its attributes are of a different nature ? And his answer is : By our own experience we know that we are obliged to live in surroundings which are not congenial to us, which are . not of our own nature. People feel that they are not related to their surroundings, there must be some reason for their being obliged to live in those surroundings, but there must be a reason in the intelligence itself; it cannot be in the material substance. We know that this is a fact, because intelligence cannot proceed from anything which is purely material. No material substance has given any evidence of having possessed intelligence... That intelligence is, we are quite sure, influenced by material things, but it does not arise from the material things. Persons of sound intelligence take a large dose of some intoxicating drink and the intelligence will not work at all. Why should this material thing influence the immaterial, the soul ? If the soul thinks that the body is its real self, anything done to the body will be