Anekanta Philosophy of Co existence

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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Anekanta : Philosophy of co-existence
Mahavira and Buddha were born in India. Lao Tse and Confucius were born in China. Countries were different but the period was the same. All four of them were contemporaries. But truth cannot be differentiated by time and space. It is in the same at all times and at all places. But the one, who reads the works of Mahavira understands truth in a certain fashion. The one, who reads the works of Buddha, understands truth in yet another fashion. Yet one who reads Lao Tse or Confucius understands truth in the third and fourth manner respectively.
The form of the truth is one. Its explanation has many forms and its comprehension is also difficult. This situation raises pertinent questions in the mind of a researcher working on truth. He asks, “Is truth real or imaginary; if it is real then why there are differences in explanations, if it is an illusion then why so much effort to understand it?" This situation has taken many people towards the untruth, those who were seeking truth. Mahavira contemplated on this subject very seriously. He saw the weakening of those people who were walking towards truth and he saw how "partial truth" was imposing itself on the complete truth, and was being mistaken as the whole. To resolve this problem, he established the idea of Anekanta and announced that all these expressions are not the complete truth but a part of the whole truth.
Entire truth cannot be expressed. Only partial the truth can be