Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Tarak Guru Jain Granthalay

Page 32

A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
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Life compels man to live in society. He is gregarious, selfish and yet a rational and moral animal. Self-develoment is possible only through his active social participation which implies the observance of ethical codes of life. Man's true destiny is not the conquest of his external nature but the conquest of his own self because ātmanigraha or the suppression of the lower self alone indicates the greatness of the human spirit. Man is not a 'lost' creature. He is ever capable of self development. Self-development is possible only through gaining philosophical truths. This is made possible only through darsana. Thus, we find the inseparability of darśana to life.
DARSANA AND THE WORLD
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Having analysed the relation between darsana and life, let us now attempt to understand the significance of the relation of darsana to the external world. Knowledge of the relation between life and the external world would give us the idea of the extent to which darsana values the relation and the extent to which man understands his relation to the values of life as such.
The world is as much the subject-matter of darsana as life is. It studies life and the world alike. In the analysis of philosophical thought, there are two fundamental streams-the idealistic and the realistic. The two are opposed to each other in their thoughtstructure. The realist affirms the reality of the external world, independent of cognitive consciousness. The idealist affirins the priority of cognitive consciousness and the reality of idea independent of the external world. In other words, the realist posits the existence and reality of the external object independent of our knowledge of it. The idealist posits the reality of an idea because we know the external object and we considered it to be real. The different trends of idealistic thought are-Subjective Idealism, Objective Idealism and Absolute Idealism. Similarly, there are different types of realism, such as Naive Realism and Critical Realism. Materialism would claim its relation to realism. Some contend that realism leads to philosophy of matter and idealism leads to the philosophy of spirit. In Indian thought, Advaita of Sankara, Vijñānavāda of Vasubandhu and Sunyavāda of Nagarjuna are forms of idealism. Advaita affirms the identity of Atman and Brahman, and the external world as an apVasubandhu states that the world and its modifications are pearance. the forms of vijñāna and the real can be described as the alayavijñāna