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Samayasāra
Chapter - 3 Loyalty to experience and to fundamental concepts of philosophy alike makes the conclusion inevitable that absolutism must be surrendered. A real-such as a soul-is neither eternal nor non-eternal in absolute sense, but partakes of both the characteristics; and this does not mean any offense to the canons of logic. The dual nature of things is proved by a reductio ad absurdum of the opposite views. Thus the law of causation, whether in the moral or in the physical plane, is divested of its raison d'etre, if absolutism as adhered to. An absolute real (e.g. eternally and absolutely immutable puruṣa) can neither be a cause nor an effect. An effect already in existence has no necessity for a cause, and an eternal cause, unamenable to change, is self-contradictory, in as much as an eternal cause would produce an eternal effect. But both the terms 'eternal cause' and 'eternal effect' have no meaning. Hence, the truth is that the effect is both pre-existent and pre-non-existent. So far as it is a passing phase of the causal substances and so far as it is a novel emergence it is pre-non-existent. But so far it is a continuation of the causal substance, it is pre-existent. The same is true of identity and difference. The effect and the cause are identical and different both. There is no contradiction as identity quâ substance and difference quâ modes are attested by indubitable experience. The contradiction would be insuperable of both identity and difference quâ substance were insisted. But Jain philosophy of anekänta never does this. It is a pity that rival systems, instead of profiting by the wisdom of the Jain philosopher, have maligned him without trying to understand his real import. He is criticized for insisting that cause and effect are identical in the same reference and in all its implications and on the ground of advocating the identity and difference of the cause and effect both as substance. But this has never been done by the Jains and so the criticism is based on hasty and false interpretation.
After this brief digression in the correct interpretation of non-absolutism of Jains, let us revert to our original subject of refutation of Sāmkhya views. In the cosmic drama, both systems recognize two primordial categories as the principal actors, viz., (i) a principle of consciousness, called the soul (jīva) by the Jains and puruşa by the Sāmkhaya and (ii) its opposite-devoid of consciousness but 1. The ancient law of anekāntavāda of Jains has been useful in modern science to
explain the paradoxical dual nature of light.
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