Swayambhustotra

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 98

Lord Sreyansanatha
existence of the remaining attributes I called the secondary attributes. A substance, thus, exhibits attributes like a friend, a foe, and neither a friend nor a foe; it incorporates duality of attributes (and their combinations)* which truly explain its existence.
*A single substance is endowed with infinite attributes and the Jaina doctrine of syādavāda is a system of scientific safeguards that aims at maintaining proper consistency in metaphysical thought. When a particular attribute of a substance is in view, the existence of the remaining attributes is not denied. The speech is resolvable into seven forms, called saptabhangi - the seven-fold mode of predications - in Jaina metaphysics, as follows:
1. syad-asti - it is - affirmation of the proposition; as being, with respect to itself.
Example: Somehow (in some respect or in certain context) the pitcher certainly is - syādastyeva ghaṭaḥ
2. syad-nāsti - it is not - denial of the proposition; as not being, with reference to another.
Example: Somehow (in some respect or in certain context) the pitcher certainly is not - syannastyeva ghaṭaḥ
3. syad-avaktavya - it is indescribable - simultaneous affirmation and denial of the proposition; as indescribable, simultaneously with reference to itself and another. Example: Somehow (in some respect or in certain context) the pitcher certainly is indescribable - syadavaktavya eva ghaṭaḥ
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