Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

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

Page 33

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" A SOURCB-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
(store-house of consciousness). Nāgärjuna goes further than the Vijñānavādins and Advaitvädins by affirming that everything including the external world, the self and God, is unreal. Even dharma and buddhi are unreal. The real is the sūnya. The philosophy of Nāgār. juna is intricate in nature and poses problems to understand it. It is difficult to understand the philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Some have interpreted the sünya in the absolutist sense of the term. Some others have interpreted the sünya in the nihilist sense as the 'void'.
Like the idealist tendencies, we have the realist schools of thought expressed in the Nyāya and Vaiseșika schools of thought. Śänkhya thought may be considered to be realistic in a sense, because it posits the reality of two fundamental principles ---Prakrti and Puruşa. In these philosopbies, the empirical as well as the transcendental spiritual reality have been accepted. The Jaina gives the anekānta point of view. It is realistic and empirical in approach to the understanding of reality.
A study of Western philosophy shows that in the Fifth century B. C., Parmenides affirmed that real is the Being and not becoming. Being is. In this sense, knowledge and the known are identical. This is the beginning of idealist thought in the West. Socrates was primary a moral philosopher. His main object was to make man good. Plato emphasised the primacy of the spirit. But, he built a structure of philosophy which may be more realistic than idealistic. Plato raised the ideas of Socrates to the metaphysical level and placed them in the world of ideas. Ideas are real, objective, eternal and perfect. They live in the world of ideas. Aristotle was more earthly than Plato. He affirmed that 'Form' and 'Matter' are the two ultimate principles and ultimate realities. Pure Form and pure Matter do not exist in the world, but they are real. The world consists of form and matter. In European philosophy, Descartes is considered to be the father of modern philosophy. He started with the method of doubt and built a philosophy on the soild foundation of mathematics: With him commenced the Rationalist School of Thought in modern pbilosophy.
SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN
PHILOSOPHY (DARŠANA) It has been alleged by Western thinkers that Indian philosophy