Jain Journal 1966 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 40

JAIN JOURNAL
7. Ebambhūta when the knower is able to designate a thing in strict conformity with the nature and quality as displayed by the thing, -the viewpoint of the Grammarians.
Of these seven, the first three have for their subject-matter dravya or substance and the last four have for their subject-matter paryāya or phenomenon. The all-comprehensiveness of the naya theory should be clear from above.
SYADVADA-Now we turn to the synthetical treatment of things in their versatility of aspects, as distinguished from the analytical treatment. The analytical treatment as such based as it is on the ordinary or naive realistic methods of reviewing a thing suffers from three serious defects. First, we cannot get rid of the material or sensuous origin which consequently tends to betray the mind into illusion or error ; second, it must fail to give the real or organic connection and unity to objects which it deals with ; and third, it is incapable of solving contradiction or reconciling the seemingly antagonistic elements which all thought is found to contain. It was the Jainas alone who realised that no element can be known fully in abstraction or isolation from the rest. What is needed is a new apparatus to see it, the unity which belongs to spiritual things. Hence the anekānta form of cognition based on the sapta-bhangi which alone gives adequate form of knowledge.. Sapta-bhangi, in other words, is a spiritual view of things which transcends both above formal logic and nayabāda or realistic enquiry. The sapta-bhangīs are :
1. Syāt asti-may be, partly or in a certain sense a thing (say, a jar) exists.
2. Syāt-nāsti—may be, partly or in a certain sense the jar does not exist.
3. Syāt asti nāsti ca-may be, partly or in a certain sense the jar exists and in a sense it does not exist.
4. Syāt abaktabya—may be, partly or in a certain sense, the jar is indescribable.
5. Syāt asti abaktabyasca-may be, partly or in a certain sense the jar exists as well as in a certain sense it is indescribable.