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and Anekaātvāda differ on this very point that truth is not one but manyfolded, Being non-absolutist the Jain philosophy cannot reach upto the absolute truth. It seems to be believing that the whole truth is only the combination of several truths in parts and not to be believing in its collective form.
On the analysis of the above passage the following four objections may be raised.
(i) How to establish hormony or unity among different viewpoints that are intended to describe a single entity.3
(ii) Whether the two contradictory views can not be percieved unitedly into a single entity.*
(iii) How the Jain philosophy is non-absolutist not only in the field of ontology but also in the theory of truth.
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(iv) The Jain-philosophy being non-absolutist can not reach up to
the truth."
The answers of these objections have been given by Acharya Shri Mahaprajna in a very logical way. He points out that the Jain philosophy does not accept the existence of origination-cessation and persistence separately. Truth does not have two (different) forms. Persistential, original and cessational existence of an entity is true. The purport is that neither difference nor identity is true but difference-cum-identity is true. Substance does not exist without modification and vice-versa. The entity having substance-cum-modification is true, therefore, identity having difference is true and difference having identity is also true. In nutshell it can be said that identity-cum-difference is true.
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There is no division of perfect or imperfect so far as the theory of truth is concerned. This division is caused by the method the subject is treated. The truth is indivisible, substance can not be separated from cessation and origination and vice-versa. From the point of view that there is no uniformity in the endless dharmas, an entity is probably divisible too. Due to this very reason an entity becomes the subject of articulation and description. This is the relative truth and is the nonabsolute truth. This truth removes the contradictions which are formed by the appearance of various contradictory modes in the Single entity.
The Jain philosophy is as pluralistic as it is monistic. Acharya ji makes it clear that the Jainology is not exclusively monistic or pluralistic as the vedanta is pluralistic in practice and identical in philosophy.
तुलसी प्रज्ञा जुलाई - दिसम्बर, 2001
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