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Anekanta
151
combining the fourth with the first three in their proper context. Here the dialectic of sevenfold predication (saptabhangi) has been clearly defined by Samantabhadra by assigning the fourth positon to the attribute of 'inexpressibility' instead of the third assigned to it in the Bhagavati Sütra and also by Sidbasena. The Aptamimämsä now explains the saptabhangi of 'existence' and 'nonexistence' (verse 17-20). 'Existence' is necessarily concomitant, in the selfsame entity with its opposite viz. nonexistence, being its adjunct (višeşana counterpart), even as homogeneity is necessarily concomitant with hetero-geneity (intention to assert difference); similarly, 'nonexistencc' is necessarily concomitant, in the selfsame entity, with its opposite (viz. existence); being its adjunct (višeșana, counter part), even as heterogeneity is con-comitant with homogeneity (intention to assert identity):
astitvam pratised hyenāvinābhāvyekadharimini. visesanatvāt sādharmyam yathā bhedavivakşayā .. nästitvam pratişedhyenāvinābhāvyekadharmiņi. viseanatvād vaid harmyam vathā bhedavivaksavā
An entity is moreover of the nature of positum as well as nega. tum (vidheya pratiśedhyātmā), exactly as the same attribute of the subject (minor term) of an inference may be a valid as well as an invalid probans in accordance with the nature of the proban, dum to be proved by it. This is the third bhanga of the Saptabhangi of existenee' and 'nonexistence'. The remaining four bhangas are also to be understood in their proper perspectives. Samantabhadra now explains the nature of a real in the light of tbis anekänta dialectic. The real must be an entity which is not determined by any exclusive property or apy absolute character. Only that which is undefined by a positive or a negative attribute exclusively is exercising the causal efficiency which is the sole criterion of reality (verse 21 : evam vidhi-niśedhābhyām anavastbitam arthakrt). The Budddist fluxist as well as the Vedāntic monist are jointly criticized here as upholding ontological views, which, being truncated and partial, fail to explain the real in its comprehensiveness. Neither an absolutely static, nor a radically dynamic object is capable of exercising the causal efficiency in spite of all other conditions, external and internal, being fulfilled. Samantabhadra (verse 22) applies the anekānta dialectic in constructing the real as a totality of infinite number of attributes (dharmas), each of which represents the whole
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