Book Title: Spiritual Awakening and other Essays
Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Previous | Next

Page 56
________________ 3. Theory of Metaphysico-axiological Anekānta along with the Doctrine of Naya (view-point) Metaphysical Anekānta : It is incontrovertible that metaphysics deals with the problem of reality or substance. For Jaina thinkers, reality is constituted of apparent contradictions. So its one dimensional exposition is not possible. It is an inalienable complex of permanence and change, existence and non-existence, oneness and manyness, universality and particularity etc. Because of this complexity, reality or substance is styled 'Anekāntic'. It is thus multi-dimensional possessing antagonistic dimensions of permanence and change, one and may etc. These antagonistic dimensions are infinite in number, of which we know only a few of them. Thus the Jaina philosopher differs from all absolutists in their approach to the unfoldment of the inner nature of reality. The jaina advocates change to be as much ontologically real as permanence. Being implies becoming and vice versa. It may be said "if the Upanișadic thinkers found the immutable reality behind the world of phenomena and plurality, and the Buddha denounced everything as fleeting, Mahavīra found no contradiction between permanence and change, and was free from all absolutism." While discussing the nature of substance we have already said that permanence signifies persistence of substance along with attributes, and refers to fluctuating modes along with the emergence of the new modes and the disappearance of the old ones at one and the same time. (i) Metaphysical Anekānta and the Classification of Substance: (Plurality, Duality and Unity) Jainism resolves the whole of the universe of being into Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays 47 Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224