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196
SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
shed means that the mode of the fiery appearance of the molecules is no more there The disappearance of the fiery mode does not indicate the destruction of the molecules The molecules are everlasting They exist whether they have a fiery mode or otherwise'
Gautam asked, 'Sire, pray enlighten me whether the individual self is lasting or transitory'
'Gautam! The individual self is lasting as well as transitory' 'How be it, sire?'
'The substratum of mode--the calm serene ocean that consciousness iS-IS perennial in the ocean roll and disappear the crests and troughs of waves that are transitory The waves do not exist independent of the ocean and similarly the latter does not exist independent of the waves The waveless ocean or the oceanless wave does not exist That leads me to state that the individual self is lasting as well as transitory When the hidden substratum of consciousness is seen beyond the modes we find the individual self as perennial When the restlessly bubbling modes superimposed over the consciousness are viewed we find the individual transitory'
The essential realities are fixed in number, not liable to multiply or reduce Their content is never destroyed and that which does not exist is not created the realities ever exist“ not subject to new creation or destruction These realities are two, the conscious and the unconscious Each of the two exists in its own right Each excludes the other Here the logic of Aristotle coincided with that of Mahavira According to Aristotle 'A' is 'A' It cannot be 'K' 'K' is 'K' and cannot be 'A' Mahavira's logic is that the conscious is ever conscious It! can never be unconscious Similarly the unconscious is ever unconscious and never conscious
We can infer the basic realities by means of their modes The world of modes is unlimited It emerges and is annihilated To change every moment is its very nature At this point Aristotlean logic diverges from Mahavirean In respect of
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