Jain Journal 2003 10

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

Page 10

70
JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XXXVIII, NO: 2 OCT. 2003
thereby hurting them, thus causing violence. However, this is possible only when we also keep an eye on the other aspects of an issue while stating one of its aspect. Also, we must take sure that we make our assertions authentically only. The Syādvāda style of prediction makes it possible by prefacing syāt meaning in a certain context before a statement.
All substances of the universe are multidimensional. The water, which is a giver of life by virtue of its qualities of quenching thirst and irrigation of crops, is also a perpetrator of death by virtue of its being a cause of floods and drowning. Who does not know that the fire is destructive but, at the same time, it also helps us in cooking, warming etc. The food sustains life but the same food is poison for those suffering from Dyspespsia and Enteric fever. The house, the book, the cloth, the union, the association, the country, etc. are all multidimensional or non-absolute. The house is an aggregate of bricks, mortar, etc; the book is an aggregate of book-leaves; the cloth is an aggregate of lateral and vertical threads; no one calls a single person as a union or association. It is when many men get together that they constitute an association or a union. It is the persons that make people and the people that make countries.
We can understand this with the help of another example as well. Rajesh is an individual person. With respect of his father he is a son as well as a father with respect of his son. With respect to his wife he is a husband and a servant with respect to his employer. With respect to his nephew he is an uncle but nephew with respect to his uncle. Similarly, he is a different relation with respect to different individuals. If some disregards his other relationships and regards his as an uncle only, it will not be a real and complete introduction of Rajesh. It will only be a show of ignorance and arrogance. The Jaina thinkers call such arrogance as thought-violence. Such ignorance cannot promote non-violence. That is why they said, first be moderate in your thoughts and then state them in terms of Svādvāda. It is not sufficient to state one's own position from one's own point of view, one must permit the other to state his point of view as well. Only then can one see the truth, only then can one be truly and practically non-violent.
In the philosophical arena, it is not new to know and state the truth from different points of view. Howere. from the Svädrida system of predication, the Jaina philosophers have brought this precept