Development And Impact Of Jainism In India And Abroad

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Arham Spiritual Center

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Contribution of Jaina Philosophy to Global Philosophies
- Dr Shubhada Joshi Prof & Head, Dept of Philosophy, University of Mumbai
Treasures of Indian philosophy very rich. It is its unique epistemology, which has laid foundations to accommodate, accept and respect plurality of truth, reality, as well as plurality of thoughts, expressions, languages and cultures. Its theory of Anekantavada has very broadly declared that it is very difficult to apprehend Reality exhaustively, completely and holistically. What is there is multiple dimensions of Reality, which are seen, experienced by the finite human person. Jaina epistemology warns us not to take the partial presentation of reality as a complete, holistic one. This is an erroneous view of Reality. What it tries to tell us probably is that the mechanism of human intellect, human reason, is important for understanding, but it has its limitations. Hence one has to 'see the plural aspects of Reality. Having based its epistemology on acceptance of plurality and having accepted a realist standpoint, Jain a metaphysical world also is full of plurality and variety. I consider it very significant from the perspective of respect and tolerance towards plurality. That the ontological world is full of plurality, the empirical world naturally will be plural and it has to be respected. This position is very conducive for a plural society like our Indian one. In a plural society, there is multiplicity of languages, cultures, religions, philosophies, spiritual practices, etc.
The relation between the variety or various aspects of variety is very crucial for a harmonious and peaceful society. The position taken by Jainism is a position not of certainty but of probability. Jaina position is never a dichotomous one but is plural. The position which accepts only two possibilities like 'P & NOT P' is very rigid as it does not treat various other possibilities with respect. The position which avoids extremities, also avoids tyranny of rigidity and exclusivism When we try to understand transcendence or Reality, we can' impose our understanding on it as 'the understanding. All understandings are partial ones. Hence all these understandings are Real but only from a particular perspective. This is a very positive way of accepting the finitude of human understanding and accepting that transcendence i.e. 'Real' is beyond any holistic expression. The clarity and exactness of science and technology does not admit a relativistic, probabilistic, pluralistic model. It denies ambiguity. It gives up a noncommittal position and becomes exploitative while clinging to clarity, exactness, certainty and an approach to master the cause producing the effect. The openness of a pluralistic, relativistic approach gives room to creativity, freedom, natural unfolding of joy, etc. All this is ruined and killed by the exploitative singular exactness which claims certainty. Post modern thinkers like Heidegger callit 'enframing' or 'gestell' i.e. 'put on rock' which is the typical feature of modern technology. To come out of such enframing, what is needed is a paradigm shift i.e. changing the attitude from certainty to probability or relativity. This is true or valid or useful,
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