Multidimensional Application of Anekantavada

SR No.: 014009
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Shreeprakash Pandey, Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 552
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 9 MB

Page 132

A Treatment of Nature of Reality: Anekantavāda
is considered by them to be the most glaring.
The Jainas do not accept that there is any self-contradiction in Syadväda. They put forth three possible forms in which Virodha can occur (i) Vadhyaghatakabhāva, (ii) Sahānavasthānabhāva, and (iii), Pratibhadyapratibandhakabhāva. These forms of Virodhas cannot affect their theories of reality. They also say that an entity is anantadharmātmaka (having innumerable characters) which cannot be perceived at once by ordinary man until and unless we conceive the problem through negative and positive aspects (Bhāvābhāvātmakatattvena), identity-in-difference (Bhedabhedena), eternality-in non-eternality (Nityānityātmakena), universal-cum-particular elements (samanyaviśesätmakena) or substancein modes (dravyaparyäyätmakena). Each and everything is related to the fourfold nature or itself (Svadravyacatuṣṭaya) and is not related to the fourfold nature of the other than itself (Paradravyacatustaya). For instance, the jar is the jar in itself, but it is not the jar in relation to others, as cloth, fruit, etc. No one can deny this dual characteristics of a thing, otherwise its negative aspects of non-existing characteristic would disappear and their modes would commingle".
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In the medieval period of logic the non-Jaina philosophers, especially the Buddhists, such as Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Prajnakaragupta, Arcata, Santarakṣita and Jītari attacked the theory and blamed the Jainas for several defects and ultimately called their theory Mithyāvāda and Jālamakalpita.
The Jaina philosophers tried their best to explain the theories which these critics held to be defective. Samantabhadra, Siddhasena, Haribhadra, Akalanka, Vidyānanda, Prabhācandra, Hemacandra etc., answered the opponents' arguments. The entire Jaina tradition appears to have more or less followed him in their endeavours to refute the objection brought against Jaina conceptions.
The foremost argument against this doctrine is the violation of the Law of contradiction, which means that "be" and "not be' cannot exist together. But the Jainas do not accept this formula in toto. They say that the validity of the Law of Thoughts should be considered by the testimony of experience (Saṁvedanā) and not by preconception. Experience certifies that the dual character of entities exists in respect