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JAIN section Combe en
163
Absolut
increase or decrease in volume without addition or loss-a position which is taken to be possible by assuming that when matter is in the subtle state any number of its particles/ may occupy the space of one gross atom. It is matter in this subtle form that constitutes karma, which by its influx into the jiva brings on samsara.
(2) Syadvada. It is the conception of reality as extremely indeterminate in its nature that is the basis of what is known as syādvada-the most conspicuous doctrine of Jainism. The word syāt is derived from the Sanskrit root as 'to be,' being its form in the potential mood. It means 'may be,' so that syadvāda may be rendered in English as 'the doctrine of maybe. It signifies that the universe can be looked at from many points of view, and that each view-point yields a different conclusion (anekanta). The nature of reality is expressed completely by none of them, for in its concrete. richness it admits all predicates. Every proposition is therefore in strictness only conditional. Absolute affirmation and absolute negation are both erroneous. The Jains illustrate this position by means of the story of a number of blind people examining an elephant and arriving at varying conclusions regarding its form while in truth each observer has got at only a part of it. The doctrine indicates extreme caution and signifies an anxiety to avoid all dogma in defining the nature of reality. The philosophic fastidiousness to which we alluded in an earlier chapter (p. 41) reaches its acme here.
To understand the exact significance of this doctrine, it will be necessary to know the conditions under which it was formulated. There was then, on the one hand, the Upanisadic view that Being alone was true; and on the other the view, also mentioned in the Upanisads, but with disapproval, that non-Being was the ultimate truth.3 Both these views,
See Gunaratna: op. cit., pp. 85-9; SDS. pp. 41-2. One of the fourteen Pärvas is said to deal with this topic. See OJ. pp. 139-40. * Regarding the applicability of the doctrine not only to matter but also to other forms of reality, see Gunaratna: op. cit., pp. 87-8.
3 See e.g. Ch. Up. VI. ii. 2. In several passages in the Upanisads, however, asat stands not for non-Being but for undifferentiated Being. Cf. Id. III. xix. 1.
