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248 :: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
newer, richer, more comprehensive, and therefore higher idea providing the basic for differences." Hegel's absolute, thus, is a unity which is, at the same time, a basis for differences, It is on account of the latter aspect of the absolute that Hegel is said to go to the higher without solving the contradiction of the lower. For Advaita Vedānta differences being mere delusions the problem of solving the contradiction does not arise. When we rise to higher systems; it does not mean that the contradiction of the lower ones is wiped out. The globe does not negate the existence of the poles, we cannot think that there are no poles on the globe. On the contrary there is no globe without the poles, poles are peacefully united in the globe. The globe implies the existence of the poles along with its own identity. In the same way Hegel must not think that his absolute can be unity only, it must imply difference as well. Difference and unity are harmoniously put together in the absolute which has its own identity beyond both unity and difference. This again brings us to the same position as Kundakunda holds about his paramārtha which transcends all the theses.
If Hegel's dialectic is universal, his absolute can never be attained. It must ever remain in the process of rising higher and higher. Thus the ultimate unity of the absolute is only a figment of imagination. If the unity of the absolute is attainable, the dialectical process must be suspended. So if the dynamism of reality is saved, the unity of the absolute is lost; and if the unity of the absolute is saved, the dynamism or reality is lost. On the other hand the Jaina holds that the perfect state of the soul is attainable and is still subject to dynamism. The principle of dynamism works on account of the capacities both for unity and difference in the Jaina paramārtha which is identified neither with unity nor with difference. If the absolute is supposed to attain absolute unity it can never be dynamic. The Jaina paramārtha or the non-absolute includes both unity and difference, and is on that very ground, dynamic.
1. T.R.V. Murti. The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, p. 301
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