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380
Jaina Philosophy and Religion
has performed the activity connoted by the etymology of the term, but is not at present engaged in that activity. Samabhirūdha is thus wider than evambhūta.
Here it too must be understood that among the seven nayas, when every succeeding naya is said to be subtler than every preceding naya, then to that extent every preceding naya is more directed towards the generic than every succeeding naya. As the generic aspect and the specific aspect are inseparable and indissoluble, all the nayas, in fact, grasp both the aspects; and yet a naya is regarded as dravyārthika, if it grasps the generic aspect more than the specific aspect, and as paryāyārthika if it grasps the specific aspect more than the generic aspect. This is so because names are given to things taking into account the predominant element or aspect of those things (prādhānyena vyapadeśā bhavanti)
When the first three nayas are called dravyārthika and the last four paryā· pārtika, the idea is that in the first three the generic element and a
consideration of it are relatively more obvious inasmuch as they are relatively crude; on the other hand, the last four nayas are relatively subtle and in them the specific element and a consideration of it are relatively more obvious. It is on the basis of this obviousness or non-obviousness of the generic and specific elements and on the basis of their dominant or subordinate status that the seven nayas are divided into two types, viz., dravyārthika and paryāyārthika.
The comprehensive non-one-sided knowledge (pramāņa) establishes that a thing or Reality is characterised by innumerable attributes as also that it is of the nature of both substance and mode (form or transformation). And nayas (standpoints or partial knowledges) analyse a thing or Reality into many parts or aspects. As already shown, nayas are divided into two main types, dravyārthika (substantive standpoint) and paryāyārthika (modal standpoint). The seven nayas are included in these two divisions.
Having given the subordinate status to the diversity or manifoldness which is the object of paryāyarthika-naya, dravyārthika-naya deals with the identity or generality which is its own object. For example, from the dravyārthika standpoint a master says to his servant, ‘Bring gold'. If the servant brings and presents before the master any ornament of golda bracelet, an ear-ring, a waist-band or a neck-chain, he will be considered to have followed his master's order. It is so because any of these golden ornaments, viz. bracelet, etc., is nothing but gold. We think that by presenting before his master any of these ornaments the servant has
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