Jain Spirit 2003 12 No 17

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 32

LIFESTYLE
DEATH IS NOT THE END
Niraj Shah explains how we can shape our future
T HAD BEEN HARDLY THREE DAYS THAT MY DEAR wife, Sheetal had been shot dead before my very eyes. My life was a total wreck. My most important reason for living had vanished. I was in shock and inconsolable. However, when I got up that morning there was such a strong impression of the word anekantvada! One single solitary word that filled my mind completely. What could it possibly mean? I found it odd because it was in a foreign language. Although I had heard my wife mention that word once, I could not remember what it meant. An uncle explained to me later the meaning of anekantvada using this wonderful parable:
"There was an elephant that came to a village. No one had ever seen an elephant before and all the villagers were very excited. There were five blind men who also lived in the village and they were also excited to hear about this elephant, so they converged at the place where the crowd had gathered to see this strange animal. The people gave them way so that they could get close to the elephant and touch him. They were all thrilled with the experience and on their way back home they discussed their experiences.
The first man said: "My elephant was long, thick and moving about very much like a snake!"
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The second man said: "My friend, you're right! My elephant was definitely moving about, but it was quite thin and short. Also it had a little tuft at the end like a brush."
The third man disagreed: "You are both wrong, an elephant is thin and flat. It moves slowly and I felt a gentle wind come from it. It's very much like a large flat fan!"
The fourth man said: "Absolutely not, an elephant is like a solid wall!"
The fifth man said: "My friends, your sense of touch is not what it used to be, an elephant is round and solid like a thick pillar!"
The research would point to the following: if you start with attention, objects appear into consciousness because of the
"We cannot change attention. The more attention you
give them, the more you see them, hear them and feel them. However, thought is what causes a split in attention. Therefore, if more thought were removed, you would be able to see the entire object in a way that a person normally doesn't see. A fully open mind is able to see reality as it is, rather than what you think it
is. It allows us to see 'the elephant' completely as it is, rather then a fragmented version tainted by our thoughts.
The thoughts act as filters that determine what you perceive. You will only perceive those things that fit in with your accepted view of the world. The rest is either deleted or discarded. Therefore, it is an incomplete or prejudiced view of reality. The thoughts are formed by our past experiences, learning and conditioning, which are accepted by us and stored in the unconscious. They will determine what will appear in our consciousness. For example, if you were wearing red tinted glasses then everything would appear around you in various shades of red and that would be your reality. Even as you read this article there is a part of your mind thinking: Does this make sense with what the I already knows and accepts? The I or the personality/ego is a collection of fixed thoughts that have solidified. These thoughts determine what you will or won't do in any situation.
Of course, all of them were right, they all felt different parts of the elephant. I immediately understood the word anekantvada. It meant: "Open up your perspective! Loss is a valid meaning for death, but it's not the only meaning." Sometimes we hold on to the trunk and think that's the whole elephant. Sometimes we are too close to understand the full meaning of what has happened. We need to look at the big picture. It was clear to me that I needed to broaden my
Jain Spirit December 2003 February 2004
Jain Education International 2010 03
perspective of death beyond just that of loss. I wholeheartedly embraced the openness advocated by the spirit of anekantvada. It is this spirit that guided me to travel, experience new places, new people and led to the profound insights that shaped my life ever since. This became the first step in a three-step process that I developed to transform grief in an empowering way, which I have called the Phoenix Method.
the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails!"
If we were to examine the Jain principle of anekantvada in the light of a scientific research then we could gain a new understanding. It would impact every area of our life and take us to the next stage in our evolution as human beings. In fact, I believe that it provides the very key to living life at a higher spiritual level.