Selected Speeches of V R Gandhi

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi Godiji Jain Derasar Mumbai

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that the Jaina doctrine should not be accepted because "it is impossible that contradictory attributes, such as being and non-being, should at the same time belong to one and the same thing ; just as observation teaches us that a thing cannot be hot and cold at the same moment." The Jainas do not teach that a thing can be hot and cold at the same moment. But they do teach that a thing cannot be hot absolutely and cannot be cold absolutely ; it is hot under certain definite circumstances, and cold under others. The Jainas do not teach that being and non-being (of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the same thing. What they teach is that in a thing there is being (of itself) and non-being (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 certain imaginary doctrines, and by refuting them he knocks him down. That is his glory.
Let us now see what the Jainas have to say about the Vedic systems of philosophy. Gunaratna Sūri, the commentator of a Jaina work on "Comparative Philosophy”, says :
“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]. For instance, the Buddhists advocate momentariness of things; the Sānkhyas maintain eternality ; Naiyyāyikas and Vaiseșikas believe in independent eternalities and non-eternal
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