Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

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

Page 346

The Doctrine of Syādvāda 329
existence is not possible... of non-existence...and also both. The expression syad asti avaktavyah has thus been taken to mean : the affirmation of existence is not possible. It has been read as a single syntactical unit. It seems, however, that it should be read with a (mental) comma after asti. It would then translate as: May be is, and is inexpressible13; rather than as 'is inexpressible as is', the w Bhandarkar seems to take it.
Dr. S Radhakrishnan outlines this Jain doctrine thus:
The view is called Syādväda, since it holds all knowledge to be only probable. Every proposition gives us only a perhaps, or may be a syād. We cannot affirm or deny anything absolutely of any object. There is nothing certain on account of the endless complexity of things. It emphasises the extremely complex nature of reality and its indefiniteness. It does not deny the possibility of predication, though it disallows absolute or categorical predication. The dynamic character of reality can consist only with relative or conditional predication. Every proposition is true, but only under certain conditions, hypothetically.
It holds that there are seven different ways of speaking of a thing or its attributes, according to the point of view. There is a point of view from which substance or attribute (1) is, (2) is not, (3) is and is not, (4) is unpredicable. (5) is and is unpredicable, (6) is not and is unpredicable, and (7) is, is not and is unpredicable. (1) Syad asti. From the point of view of its own material, place, time
and nature, a thing is, i.e. exists as itself. The jar exists as made of clay, in my room at the present moment, of such and such a shape and size. Syād nästi. From the point of view of the material, place, time and nature of another thing, a thing is not, i.e. it is not no-thing. The jar does not exist as made of metal, at a different place or time or
of a different shape and size. 3) Syad asti nasti. From the point of view of the same quaternary,
relating to itself and another thing, it may be said that a thing is and is not. In a certain sense the jar exists and in a certain sense
it does not. We say here what a thing is as well as what it is not. (4) Syād avaktavya. While in three we make statements that a thing
is in its own self and is not, as another successively, it becomes
13. Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., op. cit., p. 71. In several formulations the particle ca
is introduced after syadasti which clarifies the point (see Chandradhar Sharma, op. cit., pp. 53-54: M. Hiriyanna, op. cit., p. 164).