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I am the Soul In Bharat there are six prominent faiths. They are - 1. Vedanta, 2. Jain, 3. Sankhya, 4. Yoga, 5. Naiyayika, and 6. Bouddha
All faiths other than the Jain are ekantavadi. While the Jain faith is anekantavadi. Looking at a postulate from only one angle is ekantavada while taking a view from various angles is anekantavada. There are infinite possibilities in each substance. Evaluating a substance by considering all its possibilities is anekanta. Assigning any substance a particular label without considering its various qualities amounts to doing injustice to it. But saying that in this aspect it is so-and-so and in the other aspect it is so-and-so brings forth the complete form of the substance. It is necessary to view a substance in as many angles as there are to it. It is the speciality of Jain philosophers that they look at every substance from the viewpoints of dravya, kshetra, kala, bhava and simultaneously have a regard for the aspects of asti 'is' and nasti ‘is not'.
This concept of anekanta is not limited to discussions of the scriptures but proves equally true even in the practical fields of life. Like the definitions of big and small, tall and short, good and bad are all relative. If there are two tables, one three feet high and the other five feet high, the latter is then taller than the former. But when another table that is eight feet high is placed next to the five feet high table, the latter becomes the shorter one although earlier it seemed taller. So the table in the middle has both tallness and shortness in it. In one table itself, there appear two contradictory qualities. Normally it would seem that what is tall is tall and what is short is short. How can there be both in one? But in practice this is what happens. Everybody knows about it and nobody objects to it. The anekanta concept itself is that two seemingly contradictory qualities are identified in one substance and yet they coexist without any protestation.
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