________________
The Jaina Theory of Liberation and the Non-absolute :: 251
alternative. Then knowledge of reality as unity or as diversity must not be designated as a make-shift. The only defect in such a knowledge is that it is unable to comprehend reality as a whole. Reality admits of analysis, and the partial truths which result from an analytical consideration of reality must not be held to be absolutely false. If proper reference-systems are given, the partial truths do not lack validity. This is certainly a relational way of thought which gives only partial views of reality. What is called an appearance is the truth obtained by following the machinery of terms and relations. When these appearances are supposed to be present in the absolute, it is wrong to say that the relational truths are totally false. Bradley clearly admits that "fully to realize the existence of the Absolute is for finite beings impossible, but a limited idea of the Absolute seems fully attainable by the finite intellect." It should be remembered that the relational and non-relational are the two implicates of a real. The relational and the non-relational inhere in the same real as change and permanence and unity and diversity do. By negating the relational side of reality we do not get the true nature of reality but only another side of it. The non-relational which Bradley considers to the nature of his absolute is simply a partial view of reality. Reality or the absolute must be beyond both the relational and the non-relational. It cannot be identified with either of them. The relational way of thought is due to the various characters present in reality, it is not merely a subjective construction of the percepient's mind. Bradley cannot consistently rest in the non-relational, he must go beyond not only the relational but also the non-relational. His absolute must come out to be what Kundakunda means by his paramārtha or what is generally known as the nonabsolute in Jaina philosophy.
1. Quoted by D.M. Datta in his Chief Currents of Contemporary Philosophy,
p. 48
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
