________________
56
The word syaad takes any answer closer to the truth. It does not reveal the entire truth, a possibility that does not exist where language is the medium. Syaad gets you as close to truth as you can and so sometimes earns you a reward too.
One cannot find a more beautiful way of realizing truth. If there was the non-committal syaad with every argument, there would perhaps be no arguments at all, no persistence to any single point of view would ever be heard. Passions are easily aroused because whatever one knows one reacts vehemently to it on the basis of the idea: what I say is the truth.
There was a pundit, a learned man in the king's court. He was a great scholar, logician and he was obstinate. If anybody came and said he was speaking the truth, the scholar would immediately refute him and make his words seem meaningless. Once the king said, "Pundit, you are indeed very mischievous. You refute everybody. Tell me what you think of this idea of mine." The pundit replied, "This is wrong because it is your opinion, not mine. What is not my opinion can never be right, it has to be wrong." Everybody thinks like that. Everybody seems to
Jain Education International
Acharya Mahaprajna
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
