Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 102

Paul Dundas, “Beyond Anekāntavāda”
monks since the beginning of the common era, to sects which emerged after the eleventh century and are still in existence today, such as the Kharatara Gaccha and the Tristutikas. However, before categorising and denouncing these opponents, the author of Gurutattvapradipa considers the typical standpoint from which a Jain should approach alternative intellectual positions, namely that of being madhyastha, literally meaning, "standing in the middle.” According to the historian of religion, Peter van der Veer, there is no word in any Indian language corresponding exactly to the English word “tolerance,” which has its origins in the European Enlightenment and the decline of the universal authority of the Catholic Church. However, this term might well be taken as indicative of the supposed basic Jain virtue of intellectual irenicism and respect for other religions which modern apologists have presented as being one of Jainism's main characteristics. But on further examination it appears to be slightly more nuanced than this would suggest.
Although the author asserts that his work, Gurutattvapradipa, has been written in the spirit of mādhyasthya--remaining between the two extremes of strong attachment (rāga) and aversion (dveșa)--he goes on to argue that there are two types of this quality of being in the middle," which are as different from each other as spiritual deliverance is from rebirth. The first type of madhyastha is an individual who has no attachment or hatred when considering issues relating to divinity, teacher or doctrine and, crucially, evinces the quality of right view or faith (samyagdęsti). Consequently, he loses all possible doubt when he realises that the statements of the Jain scriptures and the direction of the path to liberation are one and the same. The second type of madhyastha, however, cannot abandon attachment and dislike
" Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 66-7.
12 Gurutattavapradipa, vv. 3-8 with autocommentary. Edited by Muni Lābhasara (Kapadvamj: MithabhāiKalyancand Pīth, 1961).
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