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10
FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
3-NAYAVADA
Things are characterized with manifoldness of aspects. For instance, general attributes are found coexisting with particular characteristics in all things. Never do we come across the general or the particular by itself. A mango tree, to take a common illustration, has a number of features in common with the other kinds of trees; and it has its own peculiarities which are not to be found outside its class. In speech, however, it is not possible to describe all the aspects of an object at one and the same time. For speech is composed of words and words are only capable of dealing with single features of things, and can only be used in a limited The word mango, for instance, generally only draws the attention to the special group of features that distinguish a mango from other kinds of trees.
sense.
There are seven special aspects which are of daily use in connection with the employment of words (in human speech). These are:
(1) In an abstract or mixed sense, that is, the description of a fact or an event with reference to a past or future state or fact, e.g., 'Today is the nirvana-day of the last Tirthamkara Mahāvīra.' (But Mahāvīra obtained nirvana over 2,450 years ago.)
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