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Application of Anekantavāda
Jain Education International
who imitates does not know whether he is imitating good or evil. It is just because he or she liked that person's attitude, behaviour, action, etc. and they try to inculcate those things into their real life. But, they do not realise that if they imitate evil, they will always go beyond that evil which they are imitating and if they imitate good they always fall short of that ideal. For example, think of a person who have tried and acted to imitate people like Gandhi and Vinoba. How many have succeeded? All have fall short, so rather than imitating others, a person has to understand that he/she is a reality and God has built him/her with a certain purpose. Every person or individual should realise his/ her purpose in life and work accordingly to achieve that purpose, but, with the help of Anekanta. If that person does not apply Anekānta, then obviously he/she will become Ekanti, i.e. with one-sided approach. In other words to achieve a particular goal, all the dimensions or angles from which the goal can be achieved has to be thoroughly read and thus taking all aspects of the goal into account, an individual has to work. Thus, the application of Anekanta begins from an individual. It is natural that after the individual, the next thing should be the home or the society in which individual lives. When an individual has several options to choose normally he is in confusion as to what to choose. By applying the principle of Anekanta he/she will decide as to one particular path would not reach his/her goal. Since, if circumstances change, as they occasionally do, the entire hard work and labour put over the period will go waste. An Anekanti will always choose the middle option or safer path. Similarly, in society, there are many problems, which are not solved by an individual changing from Ekāntī to Anekānti. An Anekānti will have to contribute in order to change the outlook of society. When you first meet a person in society he will judge you by your dress and when you leave he will judge by your behaviour. But, if you are judged by your dress to be evil or a person with bad intention, you will not be judged from inside or by your behaviour. Since, you will not be able to go nearer to the person at all. So, it is important for an individual to change even outwardly, not limiting the change to the self. This outward change or the change in outlook has to come automatically when there is a change in self. When
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