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CHAPTER IX
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‘reciprocity'is implicitly contained in the structure of reality as envisaged by Jainism.'
In course of this brief enquiry into, and the illustration of, the steps in the development of the spirit of distinction involved in the theory of the Anekānta (the manifold or indeterminate) nature of reality we have observed that the notion of manifoldness not merely presupposes the notion of manyness or pluralism, but also contains the activistic implication of reciprocity or interaction among the reals in the universe. Although manifoldness is the most significant step in the dialectical analysis of the Jaina conception of reality, it comprehends and presupposes the other steps within its scope as a logical necessity. That is, independence (of consciousness and the world), pluralism, interrelatedness and reciprocity or dynamism are component factors in the amplitude of the ontological as well as the epistemological significance of the relativistic notion of manifoldness or indetermination with which the entire reality is, according to Jainism, stamped (syādvādamudrāńkitam).
Before proceeding, finally, to consider the theories of standpoints (nayavāda) and of the Conditional Predication (syādvāda) or the Sevenfold Dialectic (saptabhangīvāda, as syādvāda is otherwise called), it is necessary to point out that the whole above account of the nature of anekāntavāda,
1. The notion of a mere interrelated universe has an idealistic
flavour. The Jaina is a thoroughgoing realist. This realistic spirit cannot, therefore, remain satisfied with a mere interrelatedness, but demands an impact or 'a double refraction', among the dynamic reals which influence or impinge upon one another proximately or remotely.
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