________________
Theory of Manifold Aspests
[ 131
If one adopts inflexible attitude or obstinacy, it will not be possible for him to live a day-to-day life and he will encounter difficulties at every step. This is enough to deter bim from showing inflexibility. One can vouch this from his own experience. But this need of avoiding obstinacy etc. as in daily dealings is not recognized by the philosophers and metaphysicians to its fullest measure in their speculations. Sometimes, this principle seems to be operating, knowingly or unknowingly in the field of philosophical speculations also where they are cautions enough to dilute their inflexibility.
We come across in the scriptures an oft-quoted example of Blind Man And Elephant to illustrate fully this theory of manifold aspects. In the domain of philosophical speculations, when one perceives, in part only, a particular thing or subject, he incurs the charge of incomplete comprehension just as a blind man who describes the elephant on the basis of his viewing a trunk, tail, feet or ears which are merely its parts, that is to say, its limbs. But a seer, who has taken a full view of the elephant, describes it to the blind man, he will be able to put an end to the controversy that might be raging between them, regarding the description of the elephant, on account of each one's lopsided view of the elephant. Similarly a person employing the Theory of Manifold Aspects is able to remove the error of incomplete perception or partial representation.
This enables us to state that the Theory of Manifold Aspects reduces many contradictory statements about any given thing to nothingness. Though the rod of the scales is the same, its upness or downness is construed in a different manner by the buyer and the seller both. The customer thinks it to be in his own interest if one of the two scales goes down while it is definitely against that of the seller. These two beliefs-that of the buyer and the seller---will have no existence, if the rod of the scale remains in a straight lipe. It is but natural for the controversy to arise about whether the down. word trend of the scale-pan is beneficial or not because none of the twothe buyer and the seller--tries to understand one another's view.point. Both of them are thinking of their own benefit, and nothing of the loss of the other. But if both the persons think of justice or propriety without minding their own profit, it will soon be clear to them that justice is possible if the scale-pans remain in a straight line. Same is the case with our thinking also. If we take our thoughts only concerning a certain thing to be true we will not be able to see truth inhering in other's thoughts. But if our mind adopts a synthetic approach or if our mind becomes neutral, we would be able to perceive truth in the thoughts of others also. Theory of Manifold Aspects finds expression or justification or evolves if there is an intense craving for seeing the truth.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
