Bhagvana Mahavira

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

Page 83

Relevance of the Jaina Religion
and can be a cause of the latter. To ideas man is as much attached as to wealth, sometimes even more. Bhagavan Mahāvīra's doctrine of anekantavāda was aimed at removing dogmatism. He said, "Look at innumerable characteristics and variations of things in infinite perspectives. Do not perceive them in a single perspective. A narrow-minded man is always dogmatic about his beliefs and decries those of others."
There was a large number of religious sects in the time of Bhagavan Mahāvīra. They professed different doctrines and defeated the very purpose of religion by engaging themselves in polemics. The eternalists (nityavādīs) attacked the phenomenalists (anityavādīs) and vice versa. On the basis of his spiritual vision, Bhagavan Mahāvīra said, "There is nothing either absolutely eternal or absolutely phenomenal. Whatever exists is eternal as well as ephemeral. A thing which you call eternal at one moment is at the same moment ephemeral also. There is no word in man's language to express this simultaneity of opposites. Therefore whenever you give a statement, add the term syat (from a certain point of view) to it. 'Syad asti' means that from a certain point of view, the thing exists. 'Syän nästi' means that from a certain point of view it does not exist. The moments of existence and non-existence are not different. A thing which exists at one moment also does not exist at the same moment. The term syat implies that when we emphasise the existence of a thing, we treat its non-existence as secondary characteristic associated with it and vice versa. Existence and non-existence cannot be separated from each other. But we canno express both with a single word and from this point of view a thing is 'inexplicable' (syad avaktavya)."
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This theory of syädvāda puts an end to ideological con+ flict. It synthesises all the schools of thought. The theory itself, however, does not create a synthesis in the objects. Synthesis exists in the very nature of objects. Syādvāda expresses this natural state of synthesis. This way of synthesi