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Jaina Logic
355
Taking into account different conditions or factors, we make different statements about a thing. And we assert and negate a particular attribute of a thing from different standpoints. Nobody finds contradiction in them. A mango is smaller than a pumpkin and bigger than a berry. Here one and the same thing is called small and big in one statement, but from different standpoints. And nobody objects to it or sees any contradiction in it. These are the simple instances illustrating the theory of non-onesidedness (anekāntavāda) or the doctrine of conditional judgement or predication (syädvāda). A thing exists and does not exist from two different standpoints. We do not know beforehand or from the very beginning as to which characters are contradictory. But when we find that the particular two characters cannot co-exist in a thing at a time, then only do we come to know that they are contradictory and consider them to be so. But if they are found co-existing in a thing at a time, then they are not contradictory at all. How can we regard them as contradictory? If a thing is regarded as both existent and non-existent from one and the same standpoint, then it is certainly a case of contradiction. But, if a thing is regarded as existent from the standpoint of its own substance, place, time and state (or quality) and as non-existent from the standpoint of alien substance, etc., it involves no contradiction. When one says that from the standpoint of persisting substance, a thing is eternal, but from the standpoint of modal changes, it is not eternal, he does not make any self-contradictory statement. As syādvāda or anekāntavāda is free from the defect of contradiction, it is also free from all those defects that are derived from that of contradiction.
On reflection, we find that the sevenfold judgement or predication (saptabhangī) has only three primary modes (1) existent (is), (2) nonexistent (is not), (3) inexpressible. The remaining four modes are derived from combining any two of these three primary modes in all possible ways. Bhagavatīsūtra mentions only these three primary modes. Therein we find: “sia atthi, sia natthi, sia avattavvam/" And the sevenfold judgement or predication is the expanded, or rather developed, form of this threefold judgement or predication (tribhang?).
While offering a reply to any question, we have to employ one of these seven modes. To make the point clear, let us take one ordinary gross illustration. Regarding a patient with his impending death a relative asks the doctor, 'How is his condition?' In reply, the doctor will give any one of the following seven answers:
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