Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 83

70
Sramana Tradition
impartible atomic magnitudes would lead to atomic magnitudes of a still lower dimension if it were possible. Actually the magnitude increases and becomes partible. Hence the Naiyāyikas assume that this increase in magnitude must be due to the number or plurality of the atoms involved. Since numbers have meaning only in relation to a percipient mind, apeksabuddhi) such a mind must be postulated at the very beginning of creation to account for its possibility. Now such an original mind can only be the mind of God.
It is interesting to recall here the way in which the famous Eng. lish philosopher Green has sought to prove the dependence of nature on the mind by emphasizing the element of relatedness in nature and by arguing that relations are necessarily dependent on the mind. It might be remarked here that while Dignäga accepted the conceptual nature of relations ( na sambandha indriyena grhyate), he used this as an argument against the ultimate unreality of relations themselves !
All these eight arguments can be summed up into two. The first of these is the cosmological argument which observes the meaningful structure and laws of nature and concludes that these are evidence of the working of a perfect mind as their cause. The second argument may be called theological and amounts to having faith in a supreme person which would be the basis of regarding the scriptures as authoritative revelations of truth beyond the ken of mere human knowledge.
Of these the second argument has no force with the Buddhists nd the Jainas since they accept a personal authorship of the Vedas but deny their authority. Religious faith requires an authentic revelation but that does not need to be identified with the Vedas. Nor is it necessary that the revelation should proceed from the creator of the universe. To be authentic the revelation should come from a person who is fully knowledgeable about spiritual matters and is free from all motivation except that of compassion and helpfulness towards suffering humanity. The Buddhists and the Jainas thus accept omniscient human teachers as the source of their religious scriptures and do not feel the need of accepting any God for that purpose. It would be clear that the atheism of the Sramaņa sects relates only to the idea 1. Cf. Pringle Pattison, The Idea of God (OUP, 1920 ), p. 203. Cf, Green,
Prolegomena to Ethics (OUP, 1907), p. 17.