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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360 Anekāntavāda and Syädvāda
Einstein in an Essay in the Year Book of Physics in 1905, spread like lightening to all fields of thought, it "struck the mind of man here, there and everywhere , illuminated the natural sciences, coloured the philosophies, touched the novelists and the artists and played round the roots of social theory.”] The Theory has been widely hailed as the most radical and paradoxical since the days of Copernicus. It became a stumbling block to classical Physics, shook the foundations of classical Mechanics; its consequences extend for beyond physics. The eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell in his "The ABC of Relativity' writes, “It is generally recognised that he (Einstein) has revolutionised our conception of the physical world.”'3 Professor A.N. Whitehead points out that “The doctrine of
ity affects every branch of natural science not excluding the biological sciences."4
After a great deal of opposition and criticism, the Theory of Relativity has been firmly established on clear and distinct mathematical principles. In spite of its asbstruse nature and mathematical technicalities, the new conception as it seemed to strike at the root of our most solid notions, Relativity, a novel conception of the world, primarily a new system of physics demanding a revolutionary change of our views as regards matter, motion, energy, space, time and gravitation and elusive to our rigid ways of thinking, will become quite habitual and perhaps common place only to future generations, when rigid notions useful in ordinary life would be got rid of. A man in the street is familiar with the name of Einstein as it has some thing to do with the atomic bomb. Beyond this, it is simply a synonymous for the abstruse.
Syādvāda and Ahimsa-Ahimsā not only of physical life but also of intellectual outlook-are the corner-stones of Jainism. Syādvāda is a peculiar and distinctive doctrine of Jaina philosophy. It is an approach, a method, a device by the aid of which a thing is observed in its innumerable aspects from different points of view. “It
1. Arthur Eddington : ‘The Nature of the Physical World'
(Introductory Note, p. VII). 2. "The Theory of Einstein constitutes a revolutionary advance, comparable with that
due to Copernicus, and seems equally likely to affect the direction of mathematical, physical and philosophical development." (George David Birkheff : 'The Origin, Nature and Influence of
Realitivity' Preface.) 3. Russell : The ABC of Relativity', p. 1. 4. "The Principle of Relativity', p. 3.
