Applied Philosophy of Anekanta

SR No.: 006966
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shashiprajna Samni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
Publication Year: 2012
Total Pages: 220
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 41

of one-sidedness (ekānta). Siddhasena admits that thus anekānta may also become ekānta, if it does not go with against the right view of things. Here I want to highlight the deep study of Siddhasena who expounded, first of all, that if we accept anekānta as the absolute theory of attaining truth of reality, then such a perspective is also (ekāntic) or one-sided view. But most of the scholars assert that this novel view was first of all predicted by Samantabhadra. From the historical point of view; we have to wipe out this mis-conception and give due credit to Siddhasena, which he deserves.
Samantabhadra also composed works like Āpta Mimāmsā, Svayambhūstotra, Yuktyanusāsana etc., where he elaborately discussed about the doctrine of syādvāda. In his Āpta Mīmāmsā, in the course of his discussion of Saptabhangi ,he has introduced quite a host of problems such as, sat, asat, dvaita, advaita, ekatva, prthakatva, nityatva, anityatva, daiva, puruṣārtha and others and applied anekāntic method of resolution to every philosophical problems. : Samantabhadra also wrote in Samskrta language in tune with the view of Siddhasena. He said that anekānta is also anekāntic, i.e. non-absolutism is not the only way, through which we proceed in the direction of searching the truth, and absolutism is also a way. The verse goes as :
anekāntopyanekānth pramāņa naya sadhanaḥ,
anekāntḥ pramāṇātte tadekāntorpitānnayāt.
If anekānta is anekānta in the true sense, then there must not be any insistence that anekānta is the only way to realize the truth and there is no other way.
Then we come to the age of Mallavādin (end of 7th cent. A.D.), the commentator of Sanmati Tarka, who wrote an
Sanmati Tarka of Siddhasena Divākara. op.cit., gāthā-3.27 2 Svayambhustotra of Ācärya Samantbhadra, 103.