$JES 904 Compendium of Jainism (Jain Academic Bowl Manual 3rd Edition)

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 106

PHILOSOPHY
B12 - Anekäntaväda II - Pramäna, Naya and Syädväda
A group of words may basically mean the same things but as individual words, they represent a special condition, e.g. hut and palace are places to live. However, poor people live in a hut and king lives in a palace, in an etymological (word historical or derivation) point of view, it represents
a specific quality or grammatical property of a word. 7. Evambhuta Naya (Determinant Point of View):
This Naya recognizes only that word which indicates the actual action presently attributed to the individual. In other words, among synonyms only that word should be selected which has a correlation with the action referred to. In this point of view, the word or sentence, which further determines its characteristic property in its present state, is used. It recognizes only the action implied by the root meaning of a word. To be real, the object must satisfy the activity meant by the word. A word should be used to denote the actual meaning. e. g. the word thief is to be used only when a person is caught stealing and
not because a person is a known thief. It represents a strict application of a word or statement. 07 Summary of Naya
Partial truth of Individual Naya As already noted, the purpose of pointing out to this detailed classification of Nayas is to show how different individuals can view the same object from different perspectives. However, these different aspects are only partially true and since they are only partially true, they are not capable of being wholly true. They, however, cannot be rejected as wholly untrue also. These different aspects can be illustrated by the reactions of some blind people who were asked to go to an elephant and give its description after touching and feeling it. One who touched its legs described it like a pillar; one who touched the tail described it like a rope and so on. Each one was right from his own standpoint because he could experience only a particular limb of the elephant and not the whole elephant. Each one of them was, however, wrong because his description did not conform to the reality, which the elephant possessed. Only one who could see the whole could comprehend this reality. Utility of Naya Theory The analysis of Naya shows that every judgment is relative to that particular aspect from which it is seen or known. This is also called Säpeksha-väda that means relativity of our particular knowledge or judgment to a particular standpoint. Since human judgments are always from particular standpoints, they are all relative and hence not absolutely true or absolutely false. Their outright acceptance as a sole truth or rejection as totally false would not be correct. This led the Jain seers to their famous doctrine of 'Syädväda', which means the doctrine of relativity. Naya-väda reveals a technique to arrive at such an understanding. It teaches us that truth is revealed to us only partially if viewed from a particular aspect. Even if one finds that a proposition is quite contrary to the conviction he had for the whole life and hence the cause of great irritation to him, once he applies the principles of Naya-väda his irritation begins to subside. The simple reason being is that
he begins to realize the real cause for that contrary proposition. 08 Syädväda or Sapta-Bhanga (Seven Predications)
Let us now understand what the theory of non-absolutism is as the Jain theory of reality from its metaphysical point of view. The Jain approach to ultimate reality can be expressed in two words: realistic and relativistic. The universe is full of innumerable material atoms and innumerable individual souls. They are separately and independently real. Again, each thing and each soul possesses innumerable aspects of its own. A thing has got an infinite number of characteristics of its own. Thus, according to the metaphysical presupposition of Jainism, a thing exists with infinite characteristics. The theory of Anekäntaväda is the metaphysical theory of reality. Jainism brings out another aspect of reality and that is its relativistic pluralism. While Anekantaväda explains reality metaphysically, Syädväda explains it epistemologically (dealing with knowledge). Both are two aspects of the same reality. We have already seen how human knowledge is relative and limited which ultimately makes all our judgments relatively or partially true, and not absolute. Syädväda is also called Sapta-bhangi
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Compendium of Jainism - 2015