Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 320

Introduction
śruta, or Anekāntavāda also called the Syādvāda or Pramāṇa-śruta, recognizes all the sides of things. The qualities, or properties, of a thing are ascertained from its different aspects, and constitute its true knowledge. Sunaya or Pramāṇa-śruta, i.e., the Śyādvāda recognizes all of them; Naya-śruta recognizes the one which has been ascertained from a particular standpoint, without denying the rest; but Kunaya, or Nayābhāsa, recognizes only one of them, to the exclusion of the rest. True Naya always predicates one of the innumerable qualities of a thing, without denying the rest. If it deny the rest, or any of the qualities not in consideration, at any particular moment of time, it becomes Nayābhāsa--a fallacy, that is, a Naya, which appears to be correct, but is not so in fact. It is thus clear that no one who has not mastered the philosophy of Nayas and is not in a position to find out from which point of view a certain passage in the Śruta-jñāna is true, is at all likely to benefit by the study of scriptures.
According to Jainism, the kind of knowledge which leads to the realisation of the great ideal of divine perfection, consists in the mastery of tattvas (principles) which are seven in number. They are:
1) Jīva, the living or animate substance, or essence, 2) Ajīva, the inanimate things, or substances, 3) Āsrava, or the inflow of the matter (karma) into souls, or the causes of the bondage of jīvas, 4) Bandha, the absorption of matter (the energy of karmas) into, or the union of karmas with, the soul, 5) Samvara, the stopping of the inflow of matter into the soul, 6) Nirjarā, the gradual removal of the matter already in combination with the soul., i.e., its partial deliverance from
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