________________
362
Jaina Philosophy and Religion
person is uncle and nephew, son and father, son-in-law and father-in-law, etc., from different standpoints. From this practical example, one can have the idea of what naya is. A thing does not have only one character, it does possess many characters. There are as many opinions or intentions as are the characters of a thing. And there are as many nayas (standpoints) as are the opinions or intentions (abhiprāyas). All communication or exchange of ideas and thoughts is of the form of naya.
With the help of non-one-sided or synoptic view, one understands a thing in its comprehensive nature and realises that it is a treasure-house (substratum) of a great many different characters.
Now let us elucidate some examples of the theory of standpoints or one-sided views
A pot is a thing. It is indestructible. In other words, it is eternal. But it is indestructible or eternal from the standpoint of its substance, viz., clay. On the other hand, it is destructible or non-eternal from the standpoint of its modes (i.e., changes). Thus it is regarded as eternal from one standpoint and as non-eternal from another standpoint. Both these standpoints are nayas.
It is doubtless that the soul is eternal, because it is indestructible. But in its mundane state, it always undergoes changes or transformations. Sometimes it attains the state of animal existence, sometimes that of human existence; at one time it enjoys the pleasures of heaven assuming the state of celestial existence and at another time it is born into a hell as a hellish being. What great transformations it undergoes! How widely different are the states one and the same soul assumes at different times!! What does it suggest? It suggests that the soul is variable or changeable. Does it undergo only a very few transformations or changes even in a single birth? There continuously goes on in it the internal changes like varied thinking, feeling, willing, etc., and pleasure, grief, etc. Thus the embodied soul is caught in the ceaselessly moving cycle of transformations and changes. On this account (i.e., on account of its changeability), the eternal soul substance can be regarded as somehow non-eternal also. So we should regard the soul as neither absolutely eternal nor absolutely non-eternal, but as eternal-cum-non-eternal. When this is the situation, the standpoint from which the soul is eternal and the standpoint from
1. "Nothing extinguishes, and even those things which seem to us to perish are, in truth,
but changed."
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
