Page Text
________________ A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAIN LITERATURE.... 517 The idea underlying the Syadvada is briefly this : Since the nature of Being is intrinsically many-sided and made up of the contradictory attributes of origination, annihilation and permanence any proposition about the existing thing must somehow reflect only one of the many modes of Being. In other words, any metaphysical proposition is right from one point of view, and the contrary proposition is also right from another. We must however bear in mind that according to the Jain logic the doctrine of Syadvada is not applicable to absolute non-entities such as the sky-flower and rabbit's horns but only to existing reals. There are, according to this doctrine, seven forms of metaphysical propositions, and to emphasize this fact of relative predication the word 'syat' which means 'may be' 'somehow' (kathamcit) or 'from one point of view is prefixed to the predication. In order to speak of something in relation to its own substance, locality, time or mode, asti (affirmation) is needed, while in relation to another substance, locality, time or mode nasti (negation) is needed. If both the aspects are to be spoken of, then both asti and nasti are to be used, but one after another. Again, if both the aspects, affirmative and negative, in the same predication, are to be expressed, it becomes inexpressible (avaktavya). These are the four initial modes of predication in saptabhangi. By attaching the forth term avaktavya to each of first three, we arrive at the seven modes of predication : asti, nasti, astinasti, avaktavya, asti-avaktavya, nasti-avaktavya, and asti-nasti-avaktavya. Thus a man is the father, and is not the father, and is both, are perfectly intelligible statements if we understand the point of view from which they are made. In relation to a particular boy he is the father; in relation to another boy he is not the father; in relation to both the boys taken together he is the father and is not the father. Since both ideas cannot be conveyed in words at the same time he may be called indescribable; still he is the father and is indescribable and so on. The purpose of these seeming truisms is to guard against ekantavada, to accommodate in a harmonious manner different points of view of different perceiving minds and thus to promote an attitude of genuine tolerance and openmindedness. There is yet another approach to the proper understanding of things; and it is that of nayas. The nayas are ways of expressing the nature of things; all these ways of judgment are, according to the Jains, one-sided and partially true. There are seven nayas. The reason for this variety is that 'Sat (Being) is not simple but is of complicated nature. Therefore every statement and every denotation of a thing is necessarily incomplete and one-sided. There are the following seven nayas described by the Jains : (1) naigama-naya takes a co-ordinated view of things, (2) sangraha-naya is concerned with generalisation; (3) Vyavahara-naya is Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |