Book Title: Jainism in Buddhist Literature
Author(s): Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar
Publisher: Alok Prakashan

Previous | Next

Page 188
________________ Chapter-V The Theory of Anekantavada 1. The Nature of Reality ( Anekantavāda ) Anekantvada is the heart of Jaina philosophy. Reality possesses infinite characters which cannot be perceived or known at once by an ordinary man. Different people think about different aspects of the same reality and therefore their partial findings are contradictory to one other. Hence, they indulge in debates claiming that each of them was completely true. The Jaina philosophers thought over this conflict and tried to reveal the whole truth by establishing the theory of non-absolutist standpoint ( anekantavāda ) with its two wings, Nayavīda and Syadvada. There are two mutually distinct and fundamental standpoints from which all things can be considered. They are universalization and particularization. Universalization starts with the observation on a synthetic basis of similarities, and gradually reacts the level where distinction exists and finally concludes that any object of consciousness is in reality an element. On the other hand, Particularization is based on observation of dissimilarities which finally leads one to the conclusion that the universe is but a conglommeration of completely dissimilar existences. These two standpoints have given rise to several other conceptions in Indian Philosophy. They can be classified into five principal categories as follows: (i) the conception of identity. (ii) the conception of difference. (ii) the conception of subordinating difference to iden tity. (iv) the conception of subordinating identity to diffe. rence and (v) the conception of identity-indifference.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326