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Theory of Manifold Aspects
described Brahma as constituted of both Sat and Asat which are contrary to each other. Not only this but he has identified earth, water, wind etc. with Brahma and put Vedanta Philosophy on a firm basis harmonising with only one Brahma many opposite statements occurring in the Upanisads. The Brahma is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest"
" (Katha, 1, 2, 20); it is perishable and imperishable, manifest and unmanifest "cat a umumq" Śvetāśvatara, 1, 8;); it is moving and stable ("तदेज नि तन्नेजति ” – ईशावास्य ) -- thus the Brahma is narrated as having dissimilar attributes and Sankarācārya has made a very great effort to bring all these disparate qualities in a line in his commentary on the various Upanisads. Here he has not hesitated to virtually make the fullest use of the Theory of Manifold Aspects which he so strongly denounced elsewhere. He detects several short comings such as doubt etc. in the Theory of Manifold Aspects when the Jaina philosophers on the basis of the theory state that a thing has got a number of opposite properties and qualities. This is nothing but the result of his sectarian approach.
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Absolute and Non-Absolute
It is a special characteristic of our late Raṣṭrapati, Dr. Radhakrṣpan that he was a great man of our times to have tried synthesizing contradictory points. It is seldom that an inflexible attitude is seen in him in regard to religious and philosophical matters of the east and the west like other philosophers and meta-physicians. It is because of this that he is considered the first and foremost of all the religious leaders and philosophical thinkers belonging to the east and west. It is but natural that he may not thus find faults with the Theory of Manifold Aspect (Anekanta). However, the impact of Advaita Brahma (Absolutism) is marked on him. Therefore, while examining Critically Anekanta, if there is any shortcoming in it, it is the absence of the absolute in it-he said. By way of repudiating this, it can be said with humbleness that the absence is not the defect but an ornament. In order to launch an attack of protest against 'absolutes', the Theory of Manifold Aspects which is but a theory of non-absolutism is devised. How can there be, then, a place for the absolute element as the supreme element in it? According to the followers of Anekanta, if there is any absolute, it is the non-absolute. Moreover, it is not true to say that there is no room for such an absolute in it, because, as said before, the concept of Brahman found in Advaitavedanta has been already included by the Jainas in the Sangraha Naya as a partial truth and has given an account of Absolutism in the scheme of total truth according to Anekanta. If so many
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