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7
ANEKĀNTAVĀDA AND SYĀDVĀDA
(NON-ABSOLUTISM AND ITS PREDICATION)
Anekāntavāda And Syādvāda –
Anekāntavāda echoes the spirit of Jainism. It is the foundation on which stands the entire edifice of Jaina philosophy. The three stanzas that the Lord Tīrthankara Mahāvīra uttered the first thing in His maiden discourse laid the foundation of nonabsolutist view-point that the faith propounded by Him was going to take. In 'Uppannai vā (things come into being)', ' Vigamai vā (things are destroyed)' and 'Dhuve vā (things are constant)' the Lord hinted at the relativity of approach that was against the prevalent dogmatic absolutist approach, responsible for all the intellectual conflict and resultant strife between various religious philosophies of the time. He gave a conciliatory way of consideration that reconciled these conflicts and paved the way for better understanding of varying view-points.
Anekāntavāda or the theory of Non-absolutism is the unique philosophical gift to the humanity by the twenty-fourth Jina or Prophet Lord Mahāvīra. Herein, he says that the reality. or the truth is many faceted and any ordinary being, with his limited vision and wisdom, can see only a few of its aspects. There is a lot that remains unseen and unknown by him. It will, therefore, be a perjury of truth to consider the partial truth, seen and known by him, to be the absolute truth, the whole truth and nothing but
