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Jaina Logic
345
trine of certainty? Knowledge of the pot as permanent and impermanent from different standpoints is as much determinate and certain as is the knowledge of the pot as pot.
Wrong interpretation of the term 'syāt as 'may be' imparts a sceptical form to syādvāda. But in fact syādvāda is not scepticism. It is not the uncertainty of judgement, but its conditional or relative character, that is expressed by the qualifying particle 'syāt. Subject to the conditions under which any judgement is made, the judgement is valid beyond doubt. So there is no room for scepticism. All that is implied is that every assertion which is true, is true only under certain conditions. Syādvāda is not of the nature of doubt arising from the difficulty or inability of ascertaining the exact nature of a thing in regard to existence and nonexistence, permanence and impermanence, etc. It is not the doctrine of uncertainty. It is not scepticism.
1. Those who have widely studied the works of the different systems of philosophy know
very well that those ancient systems of philosophy have also accepted and followed the non-one-sided viewpoint (anekānta-dysti). The Nyāya-Vaiseșika system has adopted this non-one-sided viewpoint in accepting earth as permanent in the form of atoms and impermanent in the form of effects. And study the following verse : icchan pradhanaṁ sattvädyair viruddhair gumphitam gunaiḥ / sānkhyaḥ sankhyāvatām mukhyo nānekāntam pratiksipet //--Ācārya Hemacandra's Vitarāgastotra Meaning: The Sāṁkhya system has accepted spädväda in declaring that Prakrti (the non-sentient ultimate entity) is constituted of the three mutually contradictory elements, viz. sattva, rajas and tamas. Again, understand the following aphorism (III. 13) from the Pātañjala Yogadarśana. etena bhūtendriyesu dharma-lakṣaṇa-avasthapariņāmā vākhyātāḥ / Translation: Thus we have explained dharma parināma (change of characteristic), laksana parināma (change dependent on time-variation) and avasthā-parināma (change of state or condition) of the physical elements (bhūtas) and the senses (indriyas). While explaining various changes which a thing undergoes pertaining to characteristic, time and state, the Yoga system has provided an instance of syāduāda. The following observation made by Upadhyāya Yaśovijayaji is noteworthy. jāti-vyaktyātmakam vastu vadan anubhavocitam / Bhatto vā'pi Murarir vā nānekāntam pratiksipet //49//-Adhyātmopanişad, I Adhikara Meaning: Kumārila Bhåtta and Murāri, the two great Mimāṁsaka thinkers, respect the method or doctrine of syādvāda, when they declare, in accordance with experience, that a thing is of the nature of both universal and particular. On p. 335, we have presented the non-one-sided view of Kumārila Bhatta. And study the following remarks made by Upadhyāya Yaśovijayaji in his
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