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56: Śramaņa, Vol 63, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. 2012 concept of paryāya brings about a tremendous modification in the Jaina metaphysics and epistemology, the like of which we do not find in the metaphysics of other schools. The implications of this concept are deep and far-reaching in the fields of ethics, logic, mathematics, statistics and linguistic analysis. Its tremendous implications are yet to be brought to the fore by the saints and scholars. Many of such elements have been worked out and developed by the Jaina thinkers, but many more are yet to be brought out. For example, the qualitative dimension of the theory of the probability is a unique idea of Jainism which is only in an embryonic form and if its details are fully worked out, it is sure to result in a Copernican revolution in the methodology of natural and social sciences. It is a challenging task for the scholars of Jainology which, I think, should be highlighted and earnestly taken up. This can be achieved if interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches are made to these areas of potential studies and whatever literature exists in this respect is made available in a language intelligible.
VII
According to the Jaina thinkers, thus, no reality, whether in the form of substance or in the form of attribute, exists as such but only in a specific mode of existence. There are infinite ways or modes in which reals can exist and this idea paves the way for the advocacy of Anekāntavāda, the central thesis of Jainism. Likewise, in the field of knowledge, to know a thing is to know its substantial and adjectival aspects in a particular mode or form. A particular mode appears only in a particular set of conditions. With the changed conditions there will be another mode of existence of that thing. So, all our knowledge of a thing at a particular spatiotemporal locus is conditional and relative to the circumstances. Of course, the possibility of absolute knowledge is all the while there. Naya has double function. It is experience of object in a particular mode and its verbal expression in that mode. This is the Nayavāda or the relativistic theory of knowledge. Since all knowledge is relative, the
