Book Title: Tulsi Prajna 1996 07
Author(s): Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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Page 198
________________ JAIN KARMA THEORY Serguet Krivov The pluralistic approach to rationality has one interesting parallel in ancient Indian culture. That is Jain Anekanta Logic. "Anekanta means not ekanta. Anta literally means end of extreme (11). "Anekanta is often translated as logic of non-absolutism. Anekanta"...affirms the passability of diverse attributes in a unitary entity. Strictly speaking, a thing is neither an absolute unity nor split up into an irreconcilable plurality. It is both unity and plurality all the time (9)" Anekanta could be considered as a set of statements: "The cognizable object is universal-cum- particular existent-cum-non-existent, eternal-cum-non eternal 'expressible cum-non expressible and thus indeterminate in terms of formal contradiction (11)." How is possible that things exist and not exist simultaneously? We see a jar in it's place and not existing in another place. Existence and non existence are thus both predicable of the jar (11). Thus ANEKANTA EMPLOY MUNDANE HUMAN ABILITY TO LOOK ON THINGS FROM DIFFERENT POINTS or an ability of images processing. But anekanta is not restricted by things perceivable by sense organ. It is applicable to complex idea which could be seen from following dialogue (10): Gautam Is the soul permanent or impermanent, o Lord ? Lord: The soul is permanent in some respect and impermanent in another respect. It is permanent in respect of it's substance (which is eternal) and it is impermanent in respect of modes which originate and wanish. Some Jain sages are used to generalizing anekanta logic into following form: All systems of philosophy are only different projections, different 2 dimensional pictures of one 3-dimensional reality. I have listened this statement from Muni Mahendra Kumar, Muni Dulahraj and Muni Dharmesh during my stay in Jain Vishva Bharati campus. Jain Education International Jain philosophy articulate objectivism and has it's own system of metaphysics supposed to be absolute. And some jainas may not agree if their system will be considered as only one possible For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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