Jainism by Vividus

Author(s): Ramnik V Shah
Publisher: Ramnik V Shah Canada

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and therefore only because of differences of aspect which makes both affirmation and negation possible for things that this system of "maybeism" is a very reasonable one. This may also be called "Asti-nasti" or "Yes-no" doctrine. According to this method, there are seven forms in which any metaphysical proposition or even a simple statement of a fact can be made. These forms are (1) Maybe it is (Syad Asti), (2) Maybe it is not (Syad Nasti), (3) Maybe it is and it is not (Syad Asti cha Nasti cha) (4) Maybe it is inexpressible (Syad Avaktavyam) (5) Maybe it is and is inexpressible (Syad Asti cha Avaktavyam Cha) (6) Maybe it is not and is inexpressible (Syad nasti cha Avaktavyam cha) and (7) Maybe it is and it is not and is inexpressible (Syad Asti cha nasti cha avaktavyam cha). A simple illustration will make this easy to understand. In relation to a particular boy, a man is the father, but in relation to another boy, he is not the father. In relation to both boys taken together he is the father and not the father. In relation to both the ideas at the same time of one boy and both boys together, he is indescribable. Further, in relation to yet another situation he is the father, he is not the father and he is also indescribable. It will be seen thus that this maybe-ism is neither self-contradictory nor vague, nor indefinite: on the contrary a very sensible view of things in a systematised form. Professor Adhikari of the Benares Hindu University India eulogised "Syadvada" once in his lecture during 1925:
It is this intellectual attitude of impartiality, without which no scientific or philosophical researches can be successful, that the Syadvada stands for. Nothing has been so much misunderstood and misrepresented in Jainism as the tenet for which the word stands. Even the learned Shankaracharya is not free from the charge of injustice that he has done to the doctrine. Syadwada emphasizes the fact that no single view of the universe or any part of it would be complete by itself. There will always remain the possiblities of viewing it from other standpoints which have as much claim to validity as the former.
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