Vijyanandsuri Swargarohan Shatabdi Granth

Author(s): Navinchandra Vijaymuni, Ramanlal C Shah, Shripal Jain
Publisher: Vijayanand Suri Sahitya Prakashan Foundation Pavagadh

Page 873

THE JAIN PHILOSOPHY
Dr. K.C. Sogani
The significant fact about knowledge is its communicability. When the knowledge is for one's own self, the question of communicability can be dispensed with: but when it is for the other, the question needs serious consideration. Communicability is accomplished through properly worded propositions. Thus knowledge to be communicable is to be reduced to propositions. This goes without saying that formulation of propositions is dependent on the content of knowledge. It is not idle to point out that if there is discordance between the content of knowledge and formulation of propositions, serious misunderstandings are bound to arise. Syadvada is the linguistic device to represent without any omission and distortion the content of knowledge. Thus in a way Syadvada and knowledge become the obverse and converse of the same coin.
Knowledge, according to the Jains, reveals itself and the object. In consequence, the Jaina thinkers propound that the object has infinite characteristics-some known, some in the process of being discovered and many as yet unknown. This is known as the doctrine of Anekantavada. Syadvada is the method of communicating the mani-fold characteristics of a thing to the other. In the absence of this technique, real knowledge of a thing cannot be passed to others without any discongruence. Thus Syadvada is the expression of Anekantavada in language. If Anekantavada is the mode of cognition, Syadvada is the mode of expression.
Shri Vijyanand Suri Swargarohan Shatabdi Granth
100