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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
sciences; just as the syādvāda hormonises various Nayas, so modern philosophy aims to harmonise the conclusions of different experimental sciences... Syādvāda is necessary to convey the nature of reality.40
The Jaina philosopher maintains that every existent possesses infinite attributes and characteristics which can be discovered by experience alone. The mind is an instrument of discovery. Individuals will differ in their views as they are based on their knowledge and experience. The central thesis of the Jaina is that there is not only diversity of reals, but each diversity is equally diversified... The conclusion is lagitimate that each real is possessed of an infinite number of modes at every moment. The number of reals is infinite and consequently their relations with one another are infinite... All things are related in one way or the other and relations induce relational qualities in the relata, which accordingly become diversified at each moment and throughout their career.41
The Vedantist starts with the premise that reality is one universal existence; the Bhudist fluxist believes in particulars, each absolutely different from the rest and having nothing underlying them to bind them together. The Naiyāyika believes both to be combined in an individual, though he maintains that the two characters are different and distinct The Jaina differs from them all and maintains that the universal and the particular are only distinguishable traits in a real, which is at once idensical with and different from both.12
In sum, a thorough insight into the philosophy of standpoints is necessary to estimate the true value of the statements of our predecessors in the field of metaphysical research. Mankind would
d that almost all the confusion of thought, and we might say, the animosity existing between the followers of different religions, would cease to exist as soon as they test the scriptural text which most of us blindly adhere to with the aid of the touchstone of Nayavāda (the philosophy of stand points). If they would only insert the word “somehow' (syāt in Samskrit) before any scriptural
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