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To Jainas, it is impossible to intuit all aspects of a thing by an average man as his knowledge is partial and relative. A thing has got an infinite number of characteristics of its own.23 Every object possesses innumerable positive and negative characters. We can only know some qualities of some things. To know all the aspects of a thing is to become omniscient.
A thing has many characters and it exists independently. They may have virudhasvabhāva (opposite characters.), and hence are anekāntic in character. 24 Anekāntic means having different characters differing from each other in quite special manner as Akalanka defines - things are absolutely sat or are absolutely asat, or are absolutely nitya or are absolutely anitya, avoidance of such kinds of absolute extreme is called Anekānta.25
Hence, it is very much clear that a thing has opposite attributes and acceptance of all those is called Anekanta. The seed of Anekanta is found in Agamic literature and is well explained - who knows all the qualities of thing, knows all the qualities of all things, and he who knows all the qualities of all things, knows all qualities of one thing 26 Human knowledge is necessarily relative and limited and so are all our judgements. This is the platform of Anekant and metaphysically it is known as Anekantvada, while the epistemological and logical side that we can know only some aspects of reality and that therefore all our judgements are necessarily relative, is called Syadvada. Doctrine of Saptabhangi
Truth is manifold, knowledge is relative. We ascertain something on some standpoint. Disputes arise out of a confusion of standpoints. Jain logicians co-subsist the confusions of standpoints and enumerate a doctrine of saptabhangī, which is of reality. When reality is dynamic and truth is manifold, our task of knowing the truth becomes difficult for there is nothing certain on account of endless complexities of things, 27 and hence the expression of truth must be equally difficult if not more, for the words fait to describe the different characters of a thing at the same time.28 So the speaker does describe one character which is prominent than the other characters in that object. Therefore, we have no right to make any absolute judgement.
Every proposition gives us only a perhaps, a may be or a Syāt. Absolute affirmation or negation of any object is therefore unreasonable.
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