Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth

Author(s): Shobhachad Bharilla
Publisher: Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth Prakashan Samiti Byavar

Page 991

३८ : मुनि श्रीहजारीमल स्मृति-ग्रन्थ The Supreme Fulfilment of Man : As, in Jainism, there is no conception of a Supreme Being, Creator of the universe, there is no room in it for any theory of Avatārahood or God-appointed prophethood. The great men who have attained spiritual freedom were nothing but men like us. They had developed their souls by a steady practice of self-discipline through many lives; and any man, if he has the will, can do like-wise. Human birth is the only condition of perfect spiritual development; even the gods are incapable of this perfection.
PHILOSOPHY The Jaina Philosophy is commonly known as Syādvāda. Syädvāda or Anekāntavada views things from many angles and reveals their true nature by embracing their different aspects and attributes. Syät in the word Syädvāda means "may be", or it may be taken to mean "somehow" or "relatively to". The real sense of the compound word, Syadvāda or Anekantavada can, therefore, be said to be objective realism--viewing things under their diverse aspects by a multiple or many-sided vision. Every real object or Dravya is subject to the triple operation of birth, persistence and dissolution. This triple operation goes on at all times in an uninterrupted simultaneity in every object. The part of a thing which is stable or persistent is its very substance, and the part which is mobile and changing is its modification. A thing in the form of a substance, is permanent, but as a modification of that substance, it is impermanent. Substance and its modifications are neither completely different nor completely indentical, which implies that every object possesses many attributes. Syādvāda is nothing but admitting all these contrary aspects and attributes objects from different points of view, By the absolute or categoric predication of a particular attribute one cannot arrive at the truth of a thing, for all existent things are complex and composite in their qualities, Syädvåda or Anekantavāda is that method of dialectic which reveals all the aspects of a thing by admitting from diverse standpoints its conflicting or self-contradictory attributes. By means of Syādvāda one can acquire the knowledge of the true nature of every object viewed in different perspectives. The same man may be variously known as a father, a son, an uncle, a nephew etc. In relation to his son, he is a father, but in relation to his own father, he is a son; in relation to his nephew he is an uncle, but in relation to his uncle, he is a nephew. He is immortal in relation to his soul, mortal relation to his body. An earthen pot is at once permanent and transitory. The object called pot is transitory, but the substance of which it is made is eternal, for the particles composing clay or earth will always endure in some form or other--they can never perish. A gold necklace is transitory, but the metallic substance called gold is permanent, for the necklace can be broken and moulded into another form, and yet its substance called gold will abide unaltered in its essence. Thus all objects of the world come into existance and perish, but in their essential substance they remain unchanged; they are, therefore, at once permanent and impermanent. The essential substance is stable and permanent, but its modifications are impermanent--they are subject to constant mutation. An absolute or exclusive predication of a particular quality ; or aspect of a thing cannot bring out the truth of its composite nature. A certain person is only a father and not a son-such an exclusive predication cannot be true, for besides fatherhood the person possesses other attri
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