Bhagvana Mahavira

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

Page 85

Relevance of the Jaina Religion
77
lutely. Once this underlying relativity is abandoned, we enter into falsity." This relativism is the Nayavāda theory of Bhagavān Mahāvīra. The term syāt in the theory of syādvūda relates one aspect of truth to its remaining aspects. The relativism of Nayavāda also does so. A non-relativistic one-sided view cannot be true.
There can be 10 ahimsă without truth and there can be no truth without ahiṁsā. They are inseparable. Bhagavān Mahāvīra admitted the reality of substance, existing in all the three times—past, present and future, as well as of the present mode. He admitted the reality of both the word as well as its meaning. He never told anybody that the latter was not true or that his statement was false. He simply insisted the people on understanding the relativistic point of view, the truth of the point of view of others and that if they did not do so, they might be proved to be untrue and what they understood to be truth might also become falsehood. The principle of synthesis of the truths of different points of view as propounded by the statement of Bhagavān Mahāvīra is an expression of his ahiṁsā, his genius and his equanimity, This principle can make the present and the future of entire mankind bright.
Metaphysics
Bhagavān Mahāvīra was not a philosophical thinker, but he had attained the state of kaivalya and had realized the Truth. Philosophical thinker does not command a spiritual vision. He formulates his views only with the help of śruta (verbal knowledge) and thinking. Bhagavān Mahāvīra had himself realized the Truth and then he said, "One who does not see, does not look within-does not see oneself, cannot realize the self. His knowledge depends on others. It is attained either on the basis of śrutajñana (verbal knowledge), or through matijñāna (determinate knowledge derived through the serise-organs and the mind). It is not in