The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha. Madhava
never to this day have returned any who have gone to Álokákáśa."
Others hold moksha to be the abiding in the highest regions, the soul being absorbed in bliss, with its knowledge unhindered and itself untainted by any pain or impression thereof.
Others hold nine tattwas, adding "merit" and "demerit" to the foregoing seven—these two being the causes of pleasure and pain. This has been declared in the Siddhánta, "Jíva, ajíva, puṇya, pápa, ásrava, saṃvara, nirjaraṇa, bandha, and moksha, are the nine tattwas." As our object is only a summary, we desist here.
Here the Jainas everywhere introduce their favourite logic called the sapta-bhaṅgí-naya,[94] or the system of the seven paralogisms, "may be, it is," "may be, it is not," "may be, it is and it is not," "may be, it is not predicable," "may be, it is, and yet not predicable," "may be, it is not, and not predicable," "may be, it is and it is not, and not predicable." All this Anantavírya has thus laid down:—
1. "When you wish to establish a thing, the proper course is to say 'may be, it is;' when you wish to deny it, 'may be, it is not.'
2. "When you desire to establish each in turn, let your procedure likewise embrace both; when you wish to establish both at once, let it be declared 'indescribable' from the impossibility to describe it.
3. "The fifth process is enjoined when you wish to establish the first as well as its indescribableness; when the second as well as its indescribableness, the occasion for the sixth process arises.
4. "The seventh is required when all three characters are to be employed simultaneously."
Syát, "may be," is here an indeclinable particle in the form of a part of a verb, used to convey the idea of indeterminateness; as it has been said—
"This particle syát is in the form of a verb, but, from its being connected with the sense, it denotes indeterminateness in sentences, and has a qualifying effect on the implied meaning."
If, again, the word syát denoted determinateness, then it would be needless in the phrase, "may be, it is;" but since it really denotes indeterminateness, "may be, it is," means "it is somehow;" syát, "may be," conveys the meaning of "somehow," kathaṃchit; and so it is not really useless. As one has said—
"The doctrine of the syád-váda arises from our everywhere rejecting the idea of the absolute;[95] it depends on the sapta-bhaṅgí-naya, and it lays down the distinction between what is to be avoided and to be accepted."
If a thing absolutely exists, it exists altogether, always, everywhere, and with everybody, and no one at any time or place would ever make an effort to obtain or avoid it, as it would be absurd to treat what is already present as an object to be obtained or avoided. But if it be relative (or indefinite), the wise will concede that at certain times and in certain places any one may seek or avoid it. Moreover, suppose that the question to be asked is this: "Is being or non-being the real nature of the thing?" The real nature of the thing cannot be being, for then you could not properly use the phrase, "It is a pot" (ghaṭósti), as the two words "is" and "pot" would be tautological; nor ought you to say, "It is not a pot," as the words thus used would imply a direct contradiction; and the same argument is to be used in other questions.[96] As it has been declared—
"It must not be said 'It is a pot,' since the word 'pot' implies 'is;'
"Nor may you say 'it is not a pot,' for existence and non-existence are mutually exclusive," &c.
The whole is thus to be summed up. Four classes of our opponents severally hold the doctrine of existence, non-existence, existence and non-existence successively, and the doctrine that everything is inexplicable (anirvachaníyatá);[97] three other classes hold one or other of the three first theories combined with the fourth.[98] Now, when they meet us with the scornful questions, "Does the thing exist?" &c., we have an answer always possible, "It exists in a certain way," &c., and our opponents are all abashed to silence, and victory accrues to the holder of the Syád-váda, which ascertains the entire meaning of all things. Thus said the teacher in the Syádváda-mañjarí—
"A thing of an entirely indeterminate nature is the object only of the omniscient; a thing partly determined is held to be the true object of scientific investigation.[99] When our reasonings based on one point proceed in the revealed way, it is called the revealed Syád-váda, which ascertains the entire meaning of all things."
"All other systems are full of jealousy from their mutual propositions and counter-propositions; it is only the doctrine of the Arhat which with no partiality equally favours all sects."
The Jaina doctrine has thus been summed up by Jinadatta-súri—
"The hindrances belonging to vigour, enjoyment, sensual pleasure, giving and receiving—sleep, fear, ignorance, aversion, laughter, liking, disliking, love, hatred, want of indifference, desire, sorrow, deceit, these are the eighteen 'faults' (dosha) according to our system.[100] The divine Jina is our Guru, who declares the true knowledge of the tattwas. The path[101] of emancipation consists of knowledge, intuition, and conduct. There are two means of proof (pramáṇa) in the Syád-váda doctrine—sense-perception and inference. All consists of the eternal and the non-eternal; there are nine or seven tattwas. The jíva, the ajíva, merit and demerit, ásrava, saṃvara, bandha, nirjará, mukti—we will now explain each. Jíva is defined as intelligence; ajíva is all other than it; merit means bodies which arise from good actions, demerit the opposite; ásrava is the bondage of actions,[102] nirjará is the unloosing thereof; moksha arises from the destruction of the eight forms of karman or "action". But by some teachers "merit" is included in saṃvara,[103] and "demerit" in ásrava.
"Of the soul which has attained the four infinite things[104] and is hidden from the world, and whose eight actions are abolished, absolute liberation is declared by Jina. The Śwetámbaras are the destroyers of all defilement, they live by alms,[105] they pluck out their hair, they practise patience, they avoid all association, and are called the Jaina Sádhus. The Digambaras pluck out their hair, they carry peacocks' tails in their hands, they drink from their hands, and they eat upright in the giver's house—these are the second class of the Jaina Ṛishis.
"A woman attains not the highest knowledge, she enters not Mukti—so say the Digambaras; but there is a great division on this point between them and the Śwetámbaras."[106]
E. BC
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Vivasanas, "without garments."