Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

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

Page 315

298 Anekantaväda and Syadvāda
It is urged that although the word 'syāt' is understood in the sense of anekanta, vidhi, vicara etc. yet in the context under consideration, viz in the context of Saptabhangi it is only to be understood in the sense of Anekāänta. Anekānta means that a given object or thing is (potentially) beset with many dharmas. The grammatical particle (avyaya) syat is indicative (dyotaka) of this. Syadvada as a doctrine arises from this consideration. Syadvāda thus, essentially is theat abhyupagama in with which it is maintained that (any) one thing is beset with many dharmas, invariable or variable (nityänitya).8 Understood in this way Syadvada emphasises that different dharma can be predicated of a given thing.
There is, however, another equally important, sense in which the word syat is used. In this use it is the potential third person singular of the root 'as'. But it is not merely the grammatical consideration that brings this sense to the foreground. Equally important are the philosophical and modal considerations. 'Syat' in this sense brings out symptomatically (pratirüpakah) that a thing is a collection or conjunction (Nipatah) of dharmas potentially it is beset with."
10
If both these interpretations of the expression 'syat' are brought to bear upon each other then two important consequences seem to follow, the fuller implications of which will become clear as we proceed, and they are: (a) Syadvada is the explanatory foundation of anekāntavāda, the explanatory frame in terms of which anekāntavāda, the doctrine according to which a thing can have many dharmas without contradication,11 becomes significant and meaningful; and (b) Syadvada is connected with potentiality, capacity or dispositions of a thing which actualize. Such actualized dispositions are given either right with the emergence of a thing (sahabhavidharmas), in which case they are called gunas or as those which happen to be actualized collectively or sequentially (kramabhāvī) in course of time. In the latter case they are called Paryayas. Both these interpretations have important consequences in the context of the Jaina Philosophical explanation, but more of it later.
Vimaladāsa: op cit p. 16.
6.
7. Op cit
8. Abhidhanarajendrakoṣa: Vol. VII, p. 848.
9.
Monier Williams: Op cit
10. Devabhadra : Nyāyāvatāravṛttitippana, 30
11. Vimaladāsa: Op cit.