Jain Journal 1972 04

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

Page 29

166
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 identical which implies that every object possesses many attributes. Syadvada is nothing but admitting all these contrary aspects and attributes of objects from different points of view. By the absolute or categorical 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. Syadvāda or anekāntavāda is that method of dialectic which reveals all the aspects of a thing by admitting from diverse standpoints its conflicting or self-contradictory attributes.
JAIN JOURNAL
By means of syādvāda one can acquire the knowledge of the true nature of every object viewed in different perspectives. The same man may variously be known as a father, a son, an uncle, a nephew, etc. In relation to his son he is 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 in 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 neclace is transitory, but the metallic substance called gold is permanent, for the neclace 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 existence 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 father and not a son-such an exclusive predication cannot be true, for besides fatherhood the person possesses other attributes also, such as sonhood, etc. If a blind man, touching only a leg of an elephant, tries to prove that the elephant has the form of a pillar, he cannot be right. Therefore, it can be safely asserted that the real nature of a thing can be revealed only by anekantavāda or manysided and comprehensive predication, and not by ekantavāda or an exclusive and unilateral predication.
The septuple formation of syādvada is called saptabhangi. Each form is headed by the word, syat. If an attribute of an object has to be