________________
106
Multi-dimensional Application of Anekāntavāda
cases like this have to be qualified as is or is not'. For instance the soul is animate (embodiment of knowledge) and never inanimate. Though animate and inanimate are truly contrary but no transience and permanence which are only apparently so, they simultaneously coexist in an object Anekānta expresses only those consistent qualities which appear to be contrary to each other but they really are. Anekānta and Syādvāda are very intricate and important doctrines whose under standing must be thorough and deep. Saptabhangi Naya - The logic of seven conditional modes of predication is the dialectical process in which thesis and antithesis reconcile in a higher synthesis. This is a Syādvăd approach of reconciliation of conflicting approaches about the reality.
When we speak of a thing as self-existing entity we mean that it exist in its own (Dravya), space (kşetra), time (kāla) and essence (Bhāva). Without a clear conception of this quadruplet pertaining to a thing, we can not know of that thing as an existential reality. Thus from the point of view of its own quadruplet the “isness” of the thing in the question is established. At the same time, from the point of view of the quadruplets of all things other than this one, its “is not-ness" is implied. Thus a thing is (asti) and also “is not" (năsti) and since it can not be said to be “is” and “is not" at one and the same time it is also
inexplicable" (avakta vya). These three conditions produce seven permutations: asti, nāsti, asti-năsti, avaktavya, asti-avaktavya, năstiavaktavya and asti-năsti-avaktavya. And in order to avoid the pitfall of being misunderstood the speaker uses the adverb 'Syāt before every one of these modes of predication. Thus Syādvāda curb down, limits and harmonises the absolutist views conveyed by individual standpoints (nayas)"
The theory of relativity formulated by Einstein, the great scientist cum philosopher of the modern age matches very much with the Anekānta vāda and Syādvăda of Jainism. The four directions, - East, West, North, South are relative to one another. If east is east and west is west, which is east and which is west? India, which is east to the Americans, has always been and will remain west to the Chinese and
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
