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Sramana, Vol. 58, No. 1 January-March 2007
ANEKĀNTA AND THE CONCEPT OF
ABSOLUTISM IN JAINISM
Dr. Jagdish Prasad Jain*
The Jaina doctrine Anekānta or Jaina Relativism is said to be concerned with the multifaceted nature of reality, thereby drawing our attention to the fact that each object consists of many attributes, forms, relations, and modes. However, the most significant aspect of Anekānta is the harmonization of conflicting views found among partial observations; that contradictory characteristics or traits (dharma) coexist simultaneously in the same object as inalienable parts thereof. Existence is as much an inalienable part of the same object as nonexistence and permanence is coexisting in the midst of change, and so on. Thus, the Jains accept the possibility of coexistence of contradictory attributes in one and the same thing.
Amrtacandra has defined anekānta in these words : yadeva tat tadeva atat, yadeva aikam tadeva anekam, yadeva sat tadeva asat, yadeva nityam tadeva anityam, ityeka vastutva nispādakam parasparaviruddha sakti dvaya prakāśanam anekāntah,' i.e. any real object in the world is identical and distinct, one and many, existent and nonexistent, eternal and non-eternal and so on. Haribhadra Sūri has kept two of these four pairs of mutually contradictory traits, viz. existent and nonexistence and eternal and non-eternal and added two pairs of universal and particular and describable and indescribable. Thus, anekānta highlights that any real object (vastu) possesses mutually contradictory traits, characteristics or
* E-155 Kolkaji, New Delhi-110019.
