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TIRTHANKARA MAHAVIRA AND HIS SARVODAYA TIRTHA
A thing which is anekanta is relatively viewed also as ekānta; what is anekanta relatively to śruta knowledge is ekanta relative to naya.
The nature of a thing can be viewed only in relation to something else
In establishing anekanta in anekanta, Akalanka writes:
"If anekanta is wholly viewed as anekanta from which ekānta is wholly rooted out, then it looks like a tree whose branches have been chopped off And if ekanta alone is accepted, this will not only end the heretical views and ultimately may end all."107
Right ekanta is naya and anekanta is pramāṇa.108 Anekānta covers all nayas. Just as scattered pearls placed on a thread gives a beautiful necklace, in the same manner, diverse nayas placed on the thread of syadvada becomes a complete naya or śrutapramāṇa
109
As the seed of the great Agamas, all the nayas (1.e right ekāntas) are contained in anekānta which has the capacity to end their mutual conflict.110 For, conflict is not in things, but in ignorance The example of several blind men 'seeing an elephant with their organ of touch is classic Some felt it to be a pillar, some a wall, some a winnow, some a post, but none of these is a correct description of the animal. For each person felt a part and considered it to be the whole.
When a part is felt and a part is expressed, there is nothing wrong about it If it is said that the leg of an elephant is like a pillar, then it is all right, for the statement is relative, and relative naya tantamounts to truth. But no single limb is the whole elephant.
107 Rajavartika, Commentary on 1/6, p. 35 108 Ibid.
109 Syadvadamanjari, Commentary on Sloka, 30 110 Puruşa thasiddhyupāya, Śloka, 2
