Jinamanjari 2001 04 No 23

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 70

and pure intuition. The purity of the soul and its knowledge was only obscured by the impediments of the passions and emotion. Gandhi believed the Jaina thought that a person whose mind was undisturbed by the sense's storms and was completely emptied of attachment, developed an unerring intuition. All of the foregoing may sound academic and abstract, but on this philosophy are based the most profound of Jaina contributions to human thought and human action.
Let us first deal with the Jaina contribution to human thought that guided Gandhi's entire life actions. This is the concept of anekantavada, or pluralism. It is a concept which recognises that reality is manifold, highly complex and pluralistic. Our view of reality is but one aspect of it, based on our own beliefs and experiences. There may exist other views and other experiences. The whole truth is a synthesis of these experiences. Therefore, truth is relative. It may appear to be different from different perspectives and different standpoints. To an observer in a moving train, the trees appear to be moving in the opposite direction. To one outside the train, they are stationary. Because of this relativity of truth, the concept of anekantavada is also known as syadvada, or the notion of may be.
The idea of anekantavada is very well illustrated by a Jaina parable of six blind men and the elephant. They all touched the elephant and then tried to describe their perception of the elephant. The one who felt its side believed it to be like a wall, the one who touched the leg thought it was like a pillar, the one who touched the ear thought it was like a fan, the one who touched the trunk said it was like the branch of a tree, the one who held the tail said it was like a thick rope and the one who touched the tusk said it had the shape of a spear. They quarrelled with each other until a man who could see passed by and pointed out that each of them was right, but that their own experience was but one aspect of the whole reality. The truth, in fact, was the synthesis of their individual experiences.
The idea of anekantavada is Jainism's greatest contribution to human thought. It fosters tolerance, respect for another point of view and a healthy spirit of sympathetic understanding, reconciliation, cooperation, coexistence, and freedom from cultural regimentation and dogma. For Gandhi, the concept of anekantavada gave rise to an extreme catholicity of views in which it was not sufficient to merely tolerate or accept another religious viewpoint but rather, to approach it with a spirit of understanding, respect and appreciation. Speaking on anekantavada Gandhi once observed: