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Anekāntavāda is very important for both the ruling and opposition parties to accept existence of each as real and learn to live with each other in a logical and peaceful manner.
Samantabhadra gave an excellent example to show application of Anekāntavāda to develop tolerance. "The king wanted his crown of gold to be melted and made into bangles for princes. The prince became sad and the princess became happy but the king was neither happy nor sad as he saw gold in both the situations while the prince saw loss of crown and the princess gain of bangles.' Thus Anekāntavāda is a theory of tolerance in the broadest sense of the term.
B. Ahimsā Ahimsă is the first alphabet of Jain doctrine. Mahāvīra tells Gautama in Ācāranga (first chapter) 'the one whom you give pain or torment is none other than you. All living beings are equal and want happiness. No one wants pain.' Such sermons by Mahāvīra create a feeling in our mind of accepting the existence of everybody, be he or she is a friend or foe, and controlling actions even when provoked. If this is not practiced, then the bigger looser is us and not the other party towards whom we become intolerant. Later Jain thinkers like Umāsvāti and others gave principle of 'Live and let live' i.e. all living beings cooperate or help each other as the main slogans or principles of Jains. The first slogan asks us to accept the principle of coexistence and the second to help and cooperate with others to help them during the period of troubles so that they can come out of it and live happily. Doctrine of karma also help us in being tolerant as we start seeing the intolerance of others towards as an effect of our previous such deeds and should be washed away now lest we continue to suffer with intolerance in future also.
Today we see terrorism and violence becoming rampant and promoted even by governments of some of the powerful countries. Rather than understand and rehabilitate, we see development and use of newer and more potent means of destruction and using them to combat violence. The results are however more destructive and even the countries or communities who promote violence become the biggest victims of violence themselves. On the other hand we see countries like Netherlands, which became almost totally destroyed after foreign occupation, accepted existence of all natural, location, size problems and then
1 "The Central Philosophy of Jainism (Anekāntavāda)" By. B. K. Matilal, Pub. by L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, 1981 2 Parasparopagrahojivānām, Tattvārtha-sutra 5/21
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