Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

Author(s): Siddhasena Divakar, Vinayvijay, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 134

Nyāyāvatāra: 29.
The
effect of both is the cessation of ignorance. mediate effect of the absolute knowledge is happiness and equanimity, while that of the ordinary knowledge is the facility which it affords us to choose the desirable and reject the undesirable.
अनेकान्तात्मकं वस्तु गोचरः सर्वसंविदाम् । एकदेशविशिष्टोऽर्थो नयस्य विषयो मतः ॥ २९ ॥
23
29. Since things have many characters (that is, may be conceived from many points of view), they are the objects of all-sided knowledge (omniscience); but a thing conceived from one particular point of view is the object of naya (or one-sided knowledge).
Objects, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, possess many different characteristics, and may be taken from different standpoints. They are understood in their entire character by omniscience alone, while to take them from a certain standpoint is the scope of naya (the one-sided method of comprehension).
Naya (the one-sided method of comprehension) is of seven kinds, mentioned below:
1) Naigama (the non-distinguished) is the method by which an object is taken in its generic and specific capacities not distinguished from each other. For instance, by the term "bamboo" one may understand a number of properties, some of which are peculiar to its own species, while the remaining ones are possessed by it in common with other trees, such as a mango, jack, banyan, etc., without any distinction being made between these two classes of properties. The Nyaya and Vaiśeṣika schools of philosophy follow the Naigama naya.