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An Epitome of Jainism environment. It is not merely a matter of theoretical interest that underlies these nayas. Apprehension and understanding of the nature of reality must be a useful means in the hands of the self to reach the safe haven of Beatitude from which there is no return. But besides this practical aspect, there is another aspect to the question. The truth that is apprehended by the pramanas and the nayas must be available for the general public, ever growing under the weight of sorrow and yearning, to have that Bliss which they know only by faith and hope. Hence is the necessity for expressing the truth through scripture. This revelation of the truth through language is the WORD or syâdváda. This pertains to the principle of conditional predication which is sevenfold. This sevenfold predication is known as saptabhangi.
3. Saptabhangi The dialectic of syâdváda is no less puzzling to Indian students of philosophy both old and new, than the Hegelian dialectic is to the European philosophers. Syâdváda and its counterpart appear at first sight self-conflicting and unwarranted. But they have an important principle,--nay the fundamental principle of reality as their substratum and justification. Closer examination reveals in them a clear grasp of truth. Every other theory of knowledge is fading into insignificance before the principle of conditional predication.
Everything existing from the bespangled heavens above to the inmost core of human personality is in a process of change and modification. If we trust ourselves to the imagination of the astronomer which enables him to ook back through eons of the past cosmic history or to have a glimpse of the far off future, we see the universe as a motion picture on the screen of existence. What is a twinkling star at present was once upon a time gigantic nebulous mass of several million miles diameter. Then by process of aggregation and condensing there is the formation of a denser nucleus which becomes larger and larger by the same process which in is turn leads to the evolution of an enormous quantity of heat. This leads to the formation of the fiery orb which by the same laws of motion gives birth to a number of incandescent masses. These held to the parent by the laws of gravitation form the planetary system. Thus our sun itself is but a star among the starry systems.
Side by side with this evolution of a sun with its planetary system we have the converse drama enacted. Either due to a mysterious explosion or due to a clash of star with star there bursts into existence a new mass of nebula. The telescope reveals to human view not only the nursery of distant solar systems, but aiso the decay and dissolution of the decrepit and defunct starry systems. The starry heavens are but the cosmic alphabet which spell the three sublime words birth, growth and decay.
Turn now to our own earth which is but a tiny speck in space when compared to the sun and the stars. Here also the same process. The
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