Basic Principles Of Jainism

Author(s): Narayan Lal Kachhara
Publisher: Narayan Lal Kachhara

Page 50

Actually, the very nature of life is such that it fails to express itself fully in partial vision. The way of human life fails to sustain itself without resorting to the vision of non-absolutism finally. The very basis of the Jain thought and conduct is in the Anekanta vision it is based on truth.
Non-absolutism is just another name of the style of revelation of truth of Bhagavan Mahavira. Truth is that which is perfect and is experienced in its realistic form. Realistic vision of anything in its all-time perfect form is difficult. Again, if this difficult task is acquired, it will be very difficult even for a viewer of truth and a truthful man to describe it as it is, in words. We might come across persons who undertake this very difficult task. Yet, even in their descriptions some contradiction or another, some difference or another, in view of difference of place, time, condition, language, style etc. is unavoidable. This applies to those rare visionary of perfection and truthful people, in whom we can keep faith and belief by mere imagination or analogy. Our experience is limited only up to common people, and it substantiates for us the fact that in the common people even though most are realistic, their vision is only partial and limited. Thus, even though truthful people might be realistic, now and again, their understanding and generalizations differ in view of imperfect vision and the imperfect means of expression; difference in culture creates greater mutual conflict. Material of difference and contradiction reveals itself on its own through all truthful people whose vision is perfect or imperfect. Very often other people create such material on their behalf.
Bhagavan Mahavira thought of the possibility of finding a way by which there will be no injustice to the persons who view truth in perfect or imperfect form. What is the way of doing justice in case of both of persons whose vision might be imperfect as also opposed to that of others and still true? This austerity, dominated by meditation brought to the mind of Bhagavan Mahavira, the vision of non-absolutism and his determination to find out truth succeeded. With the help of this key of vision of non-absolutism, he opened the lock of this-worldly and otherworldly problems individual and community life and obtained a conviction.
It would be seen that a single substance is endowed with infinite modifications, and there are infinite classes of substance; to know one substance fully is to know the whole range of the object of knowledge; and this is possible only in omniscience. A substance is endowed with qualities (or attributes) and modifications; though the substance is the same, it comes to be different because of its passing through different modifications; so when something is to be stated about a substance, viewed through a flux of modifications, there would be seven modes of predication as mentioned below..
Thus it is clear that our universe is complex and comprises infinite realities. To have simultaneous view of the totality of the infinite ad infinitum, with all its subjective and objective characteristics, with all its chequered aspects of dialectical opposites, such as "I" and "not l", one and many, similar and dissimilar, eternal and ephemeral, determinate and indeterminate, prior and subsequent, cause and effect, good and bad, ugly and beautiful, is highly impossible for
50