________________
III
THE NYĀYA PHILOSOPHY
1. Having finished our discussion on the Sankhya and its counterpart the Yoga philosophy we now enter upon the Nyāya of Gautama with its supplement the Vaisheshika.
The author or rather the recognized promulgator of the Nyaya philosophy is Gautama. This philosophy starts with the proposition that in order to obtain the summum bonum one must acquire the knowledge of the truth; knowledge of the truth drives away miseries, births, mundane existence, faults and false knowledge and the result is Ala, the freedom of the soul. How can the knowledge of the truth be obtained ? Gautama says : Knowledge of sixteen topics leads to Aten.' What are these sixteen topics? They are all connected with the process of reasoning and the laws of thought.1 We do not find in Nyaya any prominence given to the rational demonstration of the universe. This we shall find in its complement the Vaisheshika. The Nyaya therefore teaches us the method of investigation, the Vaisheshika following that method actually tries to investigate into the nature of the universe.
2. The Nyaya mode of investigation may seem very peculiar to those who are not acquainted with the Hindu mode of thinking but it is quite Indian and unique. It says that if you wish to investigate into the nature of things you must proceed first to mention BERT, then give the Gent of those things and lastly to make ata. I shall explain these terms. First you have
1. NS 1.1-2
62
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
