Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 649

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
XI
observe self-imposed punishment, expiation, make self-analysis, (ālocanā), practise external and internal austerities and samlekhanā to maintain life (or to save his soul).
The BhS reveals that the unrighteous acts produce bad effects with the march of time by grinding the wheel of life. So it advocates the observance of the five great vows which form the kernel of ethics and the ideal of renunciation which leads to the path of asceticism, attainment of spiritual liberation, ultimate peace and happiness-the aims of human life.
The text throws an important light upon the field of Logic by making a formal and scientific exposition of the entire system of thought, religion, philosophy, psychology, epistemology and ethics through the linguistic expressions. It divides Pramāna the system by which the validity of any knowledge is determined) into pratyaksa (direct perception), anumāna (inference) upamāna (analogy) and Agama (scripture). Jainism as revealed in the BKS has modified the view of pratyaksa-pramāna by explaining that it is conditioned by the senses and mind.
As the empirical knowledge is incomplete and does not convey the correct knowledge of the object, so the Bhs classifies Naya (Judgement) into two categories, viz. Vyavahāra Naya and Niscaya Naya (phenomenal or empirical judgement or logic and noumenal or ascertaining judgement or logic).
The text makes a formal and scientific exposition of the relativity of judgement from the stand-point of non-absolutism, e.g. souls are eternal from the aspect of substance and non-eternal from that of state. It explains the principle of cause and effect as manifested in the infinite qualities and modes of substances, the value of which is determined from different aspects. Though the text does not clearly deal with the Saptabhangi-Naya (sevenfold judgement), it is apparently clear from the study, exposition and analysis of its subject-matters that the whole system of thought, religion, philosophy, psychology, epistemology, and
...1. Vide, Ch. X, Sec. 5.