First Principal of the Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Hirachand Liladhar Zaveri
Publisher: Jaina Vividh Sahitya Shastramala

Page 43

THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF
both what it is and what it is not, the word avaktavyah is inserted in the statement.
Sixth way of speaking: syannastyeva syadavaktavyah (ghatah). In this mode of speaking it is what the thing [jar, for instance) is not that finds expression. And the reason for adding avaktavyah is that when we are proving what a thing [jar, for instance] is not, we wish to mention that the thing has at the same time positive attributes (is-ness), but that it is impossible to give them expression while we are proving what the thing is not.
Seventh way of speaking : syadastyeva syannastyeva syadavaktavyah (ghatah). In the seventh mode of speaking one expresses first what the thing [jar, for instance) is, and then what it is not; and one adds that it is impossible to express both what it is and what it is not simultaneously. When one is talking of the attributes of a thing there is existence, and when one is talking of the attributes of another thing there is non-existence in the first thing, but it is impossible to express them both at the same time.
There may be many things that may be said of a thing (jar, for instance] besides its present and absent attributes; but whatever is predicated of a subject may always be predicated in these seven possible ways. The possible ways of speaking about a thing's attributes will always be seven in number.'