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204
PROBLEM OF AVIDYA
[CH.
that error is not only privative in character but also positive in its results. And for this an adequate condition must be postulated. This condition is called nescience. It not only obscures and hides the nature of reality but also vests it with a false appearance. It is a positive force as has been advocated by the Vedāntist, the Buddhist, the exponents of the Yoga school and others. The Jaina also agrees with this view. He thinks that it is the association of destructive karmic matter with the self that is responsible for these abnormal intellectual, emotional and volitional aberrations. This karmic matter is a positive fact and force and it has also twofold function. It not only obscures the innate perfect nature of the soul and hinders the full exercise of the powers, but also makes it a prey to illusions in every plane, intellectual, emotional and volitional. This fundamental agreement with the philosophers of other schools does not however solve the various problems that confront a thinking mind. It is a painful fact that the philosophers are at variance with one another in their estimate of the facts of experience and thought. What is this due to? Each school of philosophers has accused the opposite schools of their failure to grasp the true nature of reality. But the philosophers' differences need not throw a damper upon our enthusiasm for the discovery of truth. After all the Law of Contradiction will help a student of philosophy to reject what is false and to adopt what is true. As we have observed repeatedly, the logic must co-operate with experience in its quest for the Holy Grail, the knowledge of ultimate reality. Whenever there is a tendency of either of these resources available to mankind to dominate and subjugate the other, the result has been a tissue of contradictory findings which cannot be all true. The Jaina's approach to this supreme problem is co-ordination of experience and reason. His differences with the rival philosophers are due to the contradictions of the fundamental postulates and axioms which have claimed unqualified allegiance of all noble minds in their quest of truth.1
Thus belief in the doctrine of karman, which is the natural outcome of the belief in the moral law of causality, is almost universally held by the majority of philosophers in India. Of course the materialists have refused to offer their allegiance to this characteristic doctrine. We do not propose to criticize the materialistic position in the present context. Our concern is now with those schools who believe in the inexorable necessity of the moral law. We shall consider whether their philosophical conclusions are in keeping with this fundamental truth.
Let us take up the position of the absolute nihilist. Nāgārjuna is the archangel of this school. He believes in the Buddhist doctrine of karman, at least on this side of final realization. So also does the
1 See The Jaina Philosophy of Non-absolutism, Chap. I.
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