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Multi-dimensional Application of Anekāntavāda
each other, and since the world-process is the result of the interaction and functioning of the different substances and elements, it follows that no starting point can be discovered for a general commencement of the universe. This amounts to saying that the idea of a creation is altogether untenable in philosophy. “Philosophy of Stand-Points" (Saptabhangi System):
We now come to the “philosophy of stand-points” which is the first step in scientific metaphysics. Any one who has at all bestowed a thought on the nature of philosophy must have arrived at the conclusion that it aims at the perfection of knowledge to emancipate humanity from the slavery of superstition and awe of nature's might, and that knowledge itself signifies nothing other than a sense of familiarity with the nature of things as they exist in the world. Now, everything in nature exists in relation to a number of other things, and is liable to be influenced by them in different aspects when looked at from the point of view of their nature and when studied in respect of the forms they assume under the influence of some other thing or things. Furthermore, when they are described by men they are generally described from a particular point of view, though the unwarý are led to imagine this one-sided description of their nature as exhaustive, many even falling into the pitfall of logical ‘suicide' by basing their deductions on a set of rules of formulas which are applicable to facts gleaned from a particular standpoint, but not to any other. We can observe for ourselves the nature of confusion which is likely to result from an ignoring or mixing up of different stand-points by means of the two following illustrations: -
(1) Let us take for our first illustration the famous text, Jiva is Brahman” (Soulis God), which certain people preach without the least possible qualification. But obviously the statement is true only in so far as the natural qualities of the soul are concerned; it is not true in respect of the present manifested condition of an ordinary Jīva who must exert himself in the right direction to his nature purity. As water in its essence is pure gaseous matter, so is a Jiva, with regard to his pure natural qualities, a perfect God; but as water cannot be said to be
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