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The Concept of Paryaya-A Singular Contribution of Jainism to World Philosophy
Dr S. R Bhatt
The history of mankind reveals a constant recurrence of some fundamental problems which have agitated human mind right from the dawn of human civilization One of such perennial problems is the problem of the nature of reality The demand for some kind of universally acceptable conception of reality is one which inquisitive human mind cannot help making But no two human minds have ever agreed with each other in their pronouncements on the same The conclusions of reason and reflection at times lead us to the idea of One Being, an all-inclusive Absolute But the facts of life and experience, on the other hand, compel us to admit a plurality of existence which cannot be confined within the narrow walls of rigid identity We cannot help believing in the existence of one fundamental, allinclusive unity but at the same time we cannot deny the existence of the manifest plurality
A corollary of the problem of the nature of reality is the question, 'how the world has come to exist ? The earliest philosophical view with regard to the reality seems to have arisen out of an attempt to answer the question, 'whence this universe?' On this issue, in the history of philosophical thought in India there seem to be two distinct and diverse trends running parallel through the ages One trend is that of evolutionism (sargavada) advocated by the Samkhya, Vedanta and the Tantra And the other one is creationism (Srstivada) put forh by most other schools Instead of approaching the variety of philosophical schools in India in terms of a subjective and sectarian dichotomy of Astıka and Nastika schools, it will be logical and philosophically rewarding to relook them in the light of the distinction between Sargavada and Srstivada
The Sargavada begins with one unitary being as the ground of the entire variegated world, be it the pradhana of the Samkhya or the Brahman of the Vedanta or the Tantra The cosmic process is regarded as that of evolutioni e one splitting
