________________
Aptamīmāṁsā
is unchanging - this is its 'saťaspect or 'svabhāva’aspect or its ‘substance' aspect. The reality seems to be unchanging when we consider its “substantial aspect but it seems to be everchanging when we consider its qualities and modes. Anekāntavāda synthesizes the two aspects and builds them into a coherent whole.
All standpoints (naya) are right in their own respective spheres but if they are taken to be refutations, each of the other, they are wrong. A man who knows the ‘non-one-sided' nature of reality never says that a particular view is absolutely wrong. A naya deals only with the particular point of view of the speaker and does not deny the remaining points of view, not under consideration at the moment.
Ācārya Samantabhadra's Svayambhūstotra:
विवक्षितो मुख्य इतीष्यतेऽन्यो गुणोऽविवक्षो न निरात्मकस्ते । तथारिमित्रानुभयादिशक्तिर्द्वयावधेः कार्यकरं हि वस्तु ॥
(11-3-53) O Lord Śreyānsanātha ! You had pronounced that the naya deals with a particular attribute that is under consideration - called the primary attribute - of a substance and it does not deny the existence of the remaining attributes – called the secondary attributes. A substance, thus, exhibits attributes like a friend, a foe, and neither a friend nor a foe; it incorporates duality of attributes (and their combinations)1 which truly explain its existence.
The sevenfold mode of predications (saptabhangi) with its partly meant and partly non-meant affirmation (vidhi) and
1. See Jain, Vijay K. (2015), "Acārya Samantabhadra's
Svayambhūstotra”, p. 72-75.
168
