Vijyanandsuri Swargarohan Shatabdi Granth

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

Page 874

The significant point to be comprehended in regard to Anekantavada is that every characteristic of a multiphased thing is maintaining its identity through the existence of its opposite as its aspect. In fact, a thing cannot be the same thing without the negation of other thing in it. For example, a colour cannot remain a colour without the negation of other characteristics like taste, smell etc. in it. Thus non-existence is as much an essential aspect of the real as existence is. Negative propositions cannot be asserted without accepting non-existence as an element in the constitution of the real. Similarly, the characteristics of one and many, permanence and change, generality and particularlty are reconciled in a thing without any incongruity. Thus when the Jainist is faced with the problem of expressing the complex content of knowledge in language in a way which can communicate to the other knowledge as such, he had to devise the method of Syadvada. The word 'Syat' when added to a proposition is indicative of the presence of multiple characteristics in a thing in addition to the characteristic referred to in the proposition under consideration. In the proposition 'Syat ghat is colourful the word 'Syat' implies that the subject Ghata is a manifold of attributes, of which the attribute of being colourful referred to in the proposition is there in the Ghata as a matter of fact. This should not be understood, as it is generally done, to mean that the existence of colour in the Ghata is doubtful. In other words, certainty of colour alongwith the manifoldness of characteristics is indicated by the word 'Syat'.
The word 'Syat' can also be understood differently, though the difference is of expression and not of meaning already discussed. As already pointed out a thing is the repository of infinite attributes. Hence the apprehension of it from a particular angle of vision or point of view, technically called Naya, does not exhaust the whole of the multiphased thing. It is important to note that the Naya is objectively given and not subjectively given and not subjectively contemplated. So in order to avoid the possible misunderstanding that a thing is exhausted by a particular Naya, every predication should be preceded by the word 'Syat', thus making us aware of the possibility of other predications in regard to that thing. Thus 'Syadvada is the custodian of clarity, certainty and unambigutiy in the field of philosophy. It is by no means the doctrine of doubt and
The Jain Philosophy
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