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Syadvāda: A Solution of World-tension
must be equally difficult if not more, for the words fail to describe the different characters of a thing at the same time.1 So the speaker does describe one character which is prominent than the other characters in that object. Therefore, we have no right to make any absolute judgement. Every proposition gives us only a perhaps, a may be or a Syat.2 Absolute affirmation or negation of any object is therefore unreasonable. All propositions are only hypothetically true. Hence unlike ordinary logic Syadvāda recognizes conditional predication, which is expressed by the prefix Syat. Logic of Syadvāda differs from ordinary logic in the fact that instead of two kinds of judgement as affirmative and negative it recognises as many as seven forms of judgement. So Syadvada is also called Saptabhangī.3
Syadvāda as a Doctrine of Seven Forms of Judgement
So far prefix Syat is concerned, we must use, because any substance is unity-in-diversity, so if we insist on absolute predication without condition, the only course open is to dismiss either the diversity or the identity as a mere mataphysical fiction. So Anekantavāda teaches that every single statement may have a partial truth5, hence even lord Mahavira, the Omniscient took recourse to a Syat before every sermonic sentence, so much so the scriptural knowledge of the Jainas has been called as Syadvada by Samantabhadra." Even Dr. 1. Kailash Chandra Siddhanta Shastri Saptabhangi and Syadvada, Premi Abhinandan Granth, p. 324.
243
2. S. Radhakrishnan : Ibid, p. 302.
3. "सप्तभिः प्रकारैर्वचनविन्यासः सप्तभंगीति गीयते", स्याद्वादमञ्जरी, पृ० २७८ ।
4. Appaswami Chakravarti: Ram Krishna Centenary, Vol. 1. 5. Ibid.
6. स्याद्वाद और सप्तभंगी, लेखक
कैलाशचन्द्र सिद्धान्तशास्त्री, प्रेमी
अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ, पृ० ३३८ । 7. आप्तमीमांसा : स्याद्वाद केवलज्ञानेवस्तुतत्वप्रकाशने ।
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