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114 First Steps to Jainism
(4) syādavaktavyah
= may be, it is indeterminate. (5) syādasti ca avaktavya sca'
= may be, it is and also
indeterminate. (6) syātnāsti ca avaktavyasca
= may be, it is not and also
indeterminate. (7) syādasti nästi ca avaktav-yasca = may be, it is and it is not and
also indeterminate. 2.2. The word syat has been translated as "may be" but this does not bring out the full implications. The Sanskrit word in mentioning one possibility has also some indirect allusion to other possibilities. The Sanskrit word asti may be rendered as "it is", "it exists", or "it is existent"; and nasti is the negation, i.e. "it is not" "it does not exist", or "it is non-existent". The third category predicates the possibility of both asti and năsti; of both "it is" and "it is not". The first three categories conform thus to the categories of classical logic and do not present any difficulty.
2.3. The fourth category is avaktavya which I have translated as "indeterminate". Other authors have used the words "indescribable", or "inexpressible" or "indefinite". For example, Satkari Mookerjee explains "The inexpressible may be called indefinite".... (JPN, p. 115). I prefer "indeterminate" because this is nearer the interpretation which I have in mind.
2.4. It will be useful if at this stage I give an illustration. Consider the tossing of a coin; and suppose it turns up "head". We may then say (1) "it is head" (now). This also implies, (2) "it is not-head" (on some other occasion). The third category follows without difficulty, (3) "it is, and it is not" which is a synthetic predication based on both (1) and (2). The fourth category predicates that the position is still (4) indeterminate.
2.5. This, however, does not exhaust the possibilities of pre
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1. The compound-phrase consists of two words syāt (may be) and avaktavyah
(or inexpressible, or indeterminate). 2. car and or also. 3. By rules of pronunciation the two words avaktavyah and ca are compounded
into avaktavyasca. 4. For example, Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana in HIL and other works.
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