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different colours and scents in the garden of this world. Syādvāda brings them together in a bouquet. Different religions are pearls in the necklace that is this world and Syādvāda is the string passing through them. In absence of the string the pearls will scatter and in absence of pearls the string has no value.
This should be understood that Syādvāda is not about assimilation of or compromise between truth and lie, neither does it advise to succumb to falsity. It is a humble effort at exploring truth. Some may think that Syādvāda pushes us towards half-truth and forces us to accept it as complete truth. Can collecting authenticated and unauthenticated half-truths in a heap result in complete truth? Some may also ask that Jain philosophy is a combination of numerous mendacious philosophies? Indeed, such doubts are not misplaced, but neither Syādvāda pretends to create complete truth by combining halftruths nor is Jain philosophy a combination of numerous mendacious philosophies. Half-truths, falsity, and mendacious philosophies are those that are absolutistic and claim only their doctrine to be the only truth and all other false. As Syādvāda explores one part of the truth from one viewpoint so does it allow the scope of accepting other part of the truth from another viewpoint. It is a path or method of churning mendacious philosophies and extracting the butter of truth. There is no other process of arriving at truth. All our family relationships are relative, for example - father, mother, son, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, etc. This theory of relativity is the foundation of the scientific world that gave us missiles, artificial satellites, nuclear fission, etc. The position of our earth in space, the gravitational pull of stars, planets, and satellites, in fact, the whole organization of the universe is based on relativity. In absence of relativity the whole configuration will alter.
IS SYĀDVĀDA A DOCTRINE OF AMBIGUITY?
In language each word is used with a specific viewpoint and conveys a specific attribute. But when combined with the word 'syāt' such meaningful word conveys the existence of other unspecified attributes while describing the specific attribute from a specific point of reference. It does not put a person in a doubtful state of mind. Syāt is not a statement of indecision like - probably it is like this, or it may be like this; or it may perhaps be like this.
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