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To achieve this ideal of Ahimsā or Karunā in our life and behaviour, the Jainas had developed a theory of manifoldness of truth (anekāntavāda) and relativity of judgment (Syadavād). There can be no non-violence (ahimsā) in action unless it is grounded in our thought and word. The voluntary action has the mental stage as its starting point. If we are mentally committed to any particular outlook or ideology, it is bound to be reflected in our rigid behaviour,
This leads to intellectual fanalicism. To think that I alone am right and the rest are in the clutches of the devil is imperialism in thought. As a matter of fact the reality is a great complexity; one thing is related to the entire universe and to know one thing completely, one has to know the entire universe and this is almost an impossible task because there is limitation to our knowledge. Live can not know the entire truth. Thus Jaina logic of Anekānta is based not on abstract intellectualism but on experience and realism leading to a non-absolutistic attitude of mind. Thus truth and truth alone is the foundation of Anekāntavād. The complexity of the universe on the one hand and our own cognitive limitations on the other hand make us know the complete truth. This attitude of the Jainas give them the advantage of remaining catholic in their outlook and of avoiding the fallacy of exclusive predication. In fact, it is an attitude of philosophing which tells in that on account of the infinite complexities of nature and our limited cognitive capacity what is presented is only a relative truth. It is true that their great passion for knowledge and truth, have not remained with Anekāatavāda or Syādavāda. Truth to be truth must be the whole truth. The Jainas have attempted of knowing the whole truth. Anekānta or Syādavāda is the typical Jaina attitude in the quest after truth. This is opposed to any absolutistic position. In Jainism non-absolutism is not only metaphysical but also an epistemological concept. There is no absolute reality so there is no absolute truth. This non-absolutistic tendency in Jainism is also reflected in their style of speech When we speak, we speak in a particular universe of discourse. Hence, all our statement must be conditional and not catigorical. It is why every statement of hero Mahavira is prefixed with a syat (somehow), which means that a statement is true or false from a particular point of view. There are seven different kinds of propositions, which we can affirm or deny with regard to any particular relation between the subject and the predicate.
This Anekānta is an extension of Ahimsa in the intellectual field and so Svādavāda is the grammer of non-absolutism. Unless we have non-absolutism in word and thought, we can pot have it in deed.
However, it is argued that relativism is a self destructive theory. Unless something as absolute is accepted, we cannot accept either the relative nature
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Mahavira Jayanti Smarika, 76
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