Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 25

8 Anekantavāda and Syādvāda
must each have its own nature, in the absence of which they would lose their identity.
Again, the momentary pot has a good many qualities and modes like colour, taste, smell, form etc. We know its existence by seeing its colour with our eyes, and in this context the colour is the own nature, while taste etc. of which we are not aware at the moment, are the alien nature. Had taste etc. been the own nature like the colour of the pot, visible at the moment, then the former would be of the nature of colour. on account of its being cognised along with the colour by the eye. And as a result the conception of senses, other than the eye, will be a futile imagination.
Epistemologically viewed, the idea of pot consequent upon the usage of the word 'pot' is the own nature (of pot), while the shape of the pot outside is the alien nature.
Consciousness has two aspects(1) The aspect of being a cognition, just like an imageless
mirror. (2) The aspect of being possessed of a cognitum, just like a
mirror with an image Of these two, the aspect of being possessed of a cognitum is the own nature (of a pot). In other words, in the epistemological situation, the pot qua the cognitum is the own nature while the cognition itself is the alien nature. The criterion is that the point of focus is the own nature while the other auxiliary conditions are the alien nature. The own nature in its essence is the object on which our cognition is fixed. Otherwise all things would be indeterminable. Thus if a pot is considered as nothing other than the cognition itself, then all other things, like a piece of cloth etc., as cognita would be identical with the pot. Exactly similar consequences will follow if non-existence of a pot is identified with the cognition itself because in that case. non-existence being something indeterminable, the entity called pot would not be amenable to any kind of treatment, ontological or
practical.
The Concomitance of the Speakable and the Unspeakable The fourth axiom of non-absolutism is the concomitance of the
9. Tattvārthavārttika, 1/6:
athavā nāmasthāpanadravyabhāvesu yo vivakşitah saḥ svatmā, itarah parātmā. tatra
vivaksitātmanā ghatah, netarātmanā. yadītarātmanapi ghatah syāt, vivaksirama. na vā' gharah, namadivyavahārocchedah syāt.
.