________________
A Treatment of Nature of Reality: Anekāntavāda
55
Siddhasena Diväkara and supported by Siddhasenagani, Haribhadra and Hemacandra. According to abhedavāda, the guņas and paryāyas are synonymous (tullattha) but the words are not interchangeable, for the word paryaya is propagated by Lord Mahāvīra, but he has not used the word Guņāstika. The third view bhedābheda vāda held by Akalanka has been accepted by all his commentators and followers such as Prabhācandra, Vādirājasūri and Anantavīrya. This view appears in a more developed and harmonised form and clarified further the relation between guna and paryāya. Rudiments of Anekāntavāda
The rudiments of Anekāntavāda are found in early Jaina and Buddhist literature. This view is adopted by practically all the logicians to certain extent. It is used by Naiyāyikas. Vaisesikas, Sāňkhyas and Buddhists as well. Even the word Anekantaor Anekansa is found in the philosophies of Naiyāyikas and Buddhists. Sankarācārya has also used the Pāramarthika and Vyāvahärika satyas to understand the nature of reality. The Vibhajjavāda and Madhyama Pratipada of Buddhists also follow the san
e same path. The main difference between Jaina and non-Jaina logicians in this regard that Jainism accepts all statements to possess some relative (anaikāntika) truth, while non-Jaina logicians do not accept that all non-categorical statements can be true or false from one standpoint or another. Anekāntavādaconceives of the possibility of knowing reality from one or more standpoints.
Samantabhadra tries to explain the conception of Anekāntavāda by giving an example. He says, the triple characters abide with a substance at one and the same time. They are not mutually independent. Utpāda can never exist without vyaya and dhrau vya. The other two characters too are mutually dependent. If a jar made of gold is turned into a crown it will please a man who has an attachment to the crown, but it will displease a man who dislikes the crown, while the third man is natural about the crown but is interested in the gold, will have no objection to it at all. Here origination, destruction and permanence abide in one reality.
Thus each and every reality is universalised-cum-particularised (Sāmānya-viśesālmaka) along with substance with modes (dravyaparyäyātmaka). Here dravya represents the universal character
.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
