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so do the others.' I n his definition of the 'other', he embraced or included not only all living beings that can move but also the existence of non-movable earth, air, water, fire and vegetation, and he made a fundamental contribution to our understanding of ecology.
So anekāntavāda and Syādvāda are the two relativistic pluralisms. They are like the two sides of the same coin. One is anekānta at the thought level and syādvāda at the speech level. For example, a pessimistic person looking at a half filled. glass of water may say that, the glass is half empty. However the other side of the truth is that glass is also half filled.So anekānta requires one to consider and understand other view point also, rather than trying to justify only his or her point, and thus remove the contradiction. The doctrine of anekānta should not remain as a mere theory. So an endeavour is made to apply the technique of anekānta and its ultimate outcome in the following practical issues of life. 5.3 Change of Vision at Individual Level and Anekānta .
Anekānta is a well known principle of life. This principle begins with a change in vision. When our vision is not holistic, then our thoughts are not distilled about both the gross and the subtle world. Mahāprajña quite often used to quote an incident of a dogmatic person. He tries to quench his thirst, by drinking the dirty water of his father's pond, while clean water is available to him. This kind of dogmatic view is found where the third eye, which sees the truth is not open. Dogmatism is the result of the lack of understanding. Many scholars limit the use of anekānta at the level of gross world, this way they narrow down the scope of anekānta. There is a saying that 'Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.' This means that a person sees what
Ācārānga Sūtra, op.cit., 2.3.63. 2 Mahaprajña. Anekānta: The Third Eye, op.cit., p. 96.
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