________________
81
abundance in the Upanisadic period. Evidently the author is thinking of such metaphysical doctrines when he speaks of the Self identifying with dharmadi. Sankara who appears in the field several centuries later adopts exactly a similar attitude and condemns such identification as examples of adhyasa* or erroneous transposition of attributes.
CHAPTER III
One other point we have to note here which is of epistemological interest is the relation of the Knower to the object of knowledge. According to Jaina theory, though the object known is related to the Knower, still it is entirely independent and self-subsistent. Its nature can by no means be interfered with. The idealistic systems both in India and Europe maintain that the object of knowledge is not only known by the agent, but is also constructed by the knowing agent in the act of knowing. Thus the object of knowledge is practically derived from the creative activity of the knowing agent. The knowing Self or ego is thus credited with the capacity of producing the external world out of itself in the process of knowing. Such an idealistic monism is incompatible with Jaina metaphysics, Probably the author was thinking of this erroneous metaphysical doctrine when he condemned the false Identity of the Self with the external objects.
एवं पराणि दव्वाणि अप्पयं कुणदि मंदबुद्धीओ ।
अप्पाणं अवि य परं करेदि अण्णाणभावेण ॥९६॥
evam parāṇi davvāṇi appayaṁ kunadi mamdabuddhio appaṇam avi ya paraṁ karedi aṇṇāṇabhāveṇa (96)
एवं पराणि द्रव्याणि आत्मानं करोति मन्दबुद्धिस्तु + आत्मानमपि च परं करोति अज्ञानभावेन ॥ ९६ ॥
96. Thus a person of dull intellect (bahiratman) takes alien things to be Self and through sheer ignorance takes the Self also to be alien things.
*The tern Adhyasa is first used by Amṛtacandra, the Comentator of Samaysara. This term is not found in the upaniṣads but is adopted by Sankara in his Bhāṣya.
श्रज्ञानान्मृगतृष्णिकां जलधिया घाबंति पातु मृगा अज्ञानात्तमसि द्रवंति भुजगाध्यासेन रज्जो जनाः ।
11
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
