Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

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Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
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standpoints are formulated in an absolute way (this is it) and are claimed to be absolutely true, they become fallacies. Therefore each standpoint should be considered as only partial truth and is true only in relation to the context.
This theory of Anekintav'dhas been variously described as the theory of manyfoldedness, non absolutism, non equivocality and relativism. S. Mookerji calls it multifacedness and the theory of non-one sidedness, implying the many sided nature of reality. Some times Anekintav dis contrasted with Ek ntav :d which stands for definite and categorical asserted philosophical position, which as pointed out earlier would be wrong or partially true. In the physical world, as in philosophy, things or ideas have plurality of attributes and these can be apparently contradictory or conflicting. Anekintavidsuccessfully harmonises or accommodates such views and completes the description of the physical reality.
To understand this principle, let us turn to quantum mechanics. Physics divides the universe in two parts, the macro or gross and the micro or subtle (see Fig.7.1). The laws governing the macro world (galaxies, planets, rocks and whatever can be seen with eye, i.e. bigger than molecules and atoms) follow the laws of classical physics and the laws governing micro world (molecules, atoms, elementary particles etc that can not be seen with naked eye) are governed by quantum physics. The laws of classical and quantum mechanics are very different and will be discussed in some detail in Chapter 7 in a broader context of Jainism and modern physics. Here we confine to a scientific discussion relevant to Anekintavid.
We see that gross matter has only a few properties. Anything we see has only two physical properties: weight and shape. As we go to smaller entities of matter constituting the microworld, like protons or electrons, they exhibit additional properties, like electric charge, wave-particle duality etc. The essence of this discussion is that in the domain of elementary particles, as one goes to finer and finer constituents of matter (from molecules to atoms to protons to quarks and so on), it exhibits more and more attributes (quantum states). It is difficult to perceive all of them at once, although they exist all the time. This is the true nature of reality. It is not possible to comprehend or quantify all these states at once. As we go further to the smallest particle, according to Jainism, the dimensionless paramanu, it may have infinite attributes, impossible to comprehend. This is not a limitation of instrument or technique of measurement, nor it is a limitation of consciousness of the observer, but it is due to the inherent nature of paramanu. It is possible that, for example, just as at atomic level wave-particle duality begins to manifest, at paramanu some new attributes of matter would arise. Energy also has many forms