Bhagvana Mahavira

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

Page 84

Bhagavan Mahāvīra
76
zing liberates us from violence born of a one-sided view of things, cock-sureness and dogmatism.
Doctrine of Naya
There may be a hundred and one forms of synthesis. Bhagavan Mahāvīra classified them into seven categories:
1. Naigama
2. Samgraha
3. Vyavahāra
4. Ṛjusútra
5. Sabda
6. Samabhirüḍha
7. Evambhuta
the view which accepts both identity and difference.
the view which posits only identity.
the view which posits only difference. the view which posits only the present moment
the view which assigns different meanings to a word according to different categories of time, etc.
the view which assigns different meanings to the synonymous words according to their etymology.
the view which assigns a meaning to a word only according to the present action.
Some seers maintained the identity of a thing by looking at it from the synthetical point of view. Others maintained its plurality by looking at it from the analytical point of view. Bhagavan Mahāvīra accepted the truth of both the views. Somila asked Bhagavan Mahāvīra whether he was one or many. Bhagavan Mahavira replied that he was one as well as many and added that from the point of view of substance (synthetic entity), he was one. From the point of view of transformations of substance (analytic characteristics), he was many also.
Bhagavan Mahavira, said "Both unity and diversity are real. But they are real only in relation to each other, not abso