Book Title: Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture
Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
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354 Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda
into account this, Jain thinkers have dealt with seven aspects of a thing in which all the infinite number of aspects are included. According to Jain philosophy out of these infinite number of aspects of a thing the knowledge of one aspect is called Naya. In this way there are infinite number of Nayas which are included under Dravyārthik Naya and Paryāyārthika Naya (Absolute point of view and Empirical point of view). From the Absolute point of view also a thing can be seen from three different aspects and Jain thinkers named them as (1) Naigam Naya (2) Sangrah Naya (3) Vyavahāra Naya. The point of view of the general and the individual both at the same time is dealt with in Naigam Naya, the general point of view is dealt with in Sangrah Naya and the individual point of view is dealt with in Vyavahar Naya. In the same way Paryāyārthik Naya is also divided into four Nayas according to the four points of views. The first Rjūsutra Naya denotes the point of view of momentary present attributes, the second Sabda Naya denotes word and its meaning, the third Samabhirudha Naya denotes the meaning according to the root of the word and fourth Evambhūta Naya denotes the action according to the meaning of the root word. All the infinite number of Nayas come under these above-mentioned seven Nayas:-really a thing is different according to different place, different time, different situations and different individual's mental conditions.
This Jain theory of Relativity is really a very grand and noble one by understanding which dogmatism, wrong concepts, conflicts, senseless prejudices, selfishness, partialities and one-sidedness vanishes by itself. By understanding the concept of relative truths there remains no misunderstanding in any way.
Syādvāda can be explained to an ordinary person in a very simple manner. A Jaina thinker in explaining Syādváda raised his little finger and the next one and asked which is bigger. The ring finger is bigger no doubt, was the answer. He then raised only the ring and the middle finger and then asked which is smaller, the answer was the ring finger. He then said it is Syadvāda. The same finger is bigger and smaller both. Thus there is nothing absolutely bigger or smaller. Every thing is relatively smaller or bigger. This is the Jaina theory of relativity. It is not so easy as you see by this example. This Jaina theory of Syädvāda is so difficult that it is beyond the reach of even many great scholars.
Einstein's theory of Relativity is also so difficult that it is not
