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2010
We must realise that there is other's view-point as our own. This can happen when one puts oneself into another's shoes or to get under the skin of others. This is called sympathy which is the act of reproducing in our minds the feelings of another. Gandhi ji once told: "I advise a man not from my standpoint but from his, I try to put myself in his shoes. When I cannot do so. I refuse to advise". He once said: "I am myself a Pruitan but for others a Catholic".
Syadvad or Anekantavada is adoption of the safe and secure middle path leaving the two extermes. It means that virtue has many facets. There is place for the penance of a saint, chastity of a woman, innocense of a child, bravery of a hero etc. As a lover of nature, one can equally enjoy the rains of rainy season, coolness of winter and heat of summer. Similarly, life is not one straight road. There are too many complexities in it. It is not like a train which once started keeps running. The real is as varibale constant. It is being and non-being, unity and plurality, the universal and the particular rolled into one. A thing is neither an absolute unity nor split into an irreconcilable plurality. It is both unity and plurality all the time. There is no opposition between unity of being and plurality of aspect. Similarly, things are neither exclusively particulars, nor are they exclusively universale, but they are a concrete realisation of both. The two elements can be distingushed by reflective thoght, but can't be rent asunder. A real is neither a particular nor universal in an exlusive manner, but a synthesis which is different from both severally and jointly though embracing them in its fold. Areal is sui generis.
Although Syadvada-Anekantavada in not complete logic, it does involve a basic principle that seems to be essential to the kind of philosophy needed to account for, and to deal with the complexities of our emerging world civilization. The two-valued logic developed presupposes the principle of excluded middle as most basic--X is either A or non-A but not both (because A and non-A are contradictions). The dynamic, dialectical organic unities inherent in the increasingly intricate inter-dependent organisations constituting our emereging world require a more dynamic, dialectical organic logic than is presently availble. Despite the fact that the twovalued logic has immense practical values when used judiciously, it is still not adequate to accont for all of the vital developments in human society.