Studies in Jainology Prakrit Literature and Languages

Author(s): B K Khadabadi
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 55

Sindies in Jainology, Prakrit
length and with a few technicalities and illustrations :
Any object, by virtue of its possessing several characteristics, is aneka-darmātmaka - dharma meaning characteristic, and hence, anekāntātmaka - anta meaning dharma. An object may be said to be nitya - imperishable from one point of view and anitya - perishable from another point of view at the same time. This statement, on the face of it, seems to be contradictory, but is the right one for having the full and correct knowledge of the object or Reality. Because from the point of view of dravya - substance, the object is imperishable and from the point of view of paryāya - modes or modifications, it is perishable".
So an object or Reality always possesses an indefinite number of characteristics, which could be of contradictory nature and, hence, one has to take a lotal or synthetic vicw of it. An acceptance or conviction of this kind of view is anckanla; and the acceptance or conviction of one of those points of view is ckānta. Hence the Nayacakra declares" :
“Eyaṁto cyanao hoi, aneyaṁto tassa samūho.” “Acceptance of one point of view is ekanta; and that of totality of the points of view is anekānta.”
To explain this doctrine of anekānta, Jainācāryas have given several illustrations to which Pt.K.C.Shastri refers. I would reproduce here one of them : A few blind men gather near an elephant. Each of them feels by touching one limb of the animal and tells to others that the elephant is like that particular linb. The rest of them do not agree. Thus do all of them. Then there arises a quarrel among themselves. By that time a normal man (with full eye-sight) arrives there and explains to them : That cach one of you have seen by touching one limb of the elephant is not false. The elephant's trunk being like a fleshy fat rope, it appears like such a rope to one. It's legs being like the pillar, it appears like a pillar to the other. Thus taking a compreshensive, total or synthetic view of all the limbs of the elephant, he verbally shows