YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 29

Pravin Shah, what spiritually helpful perspectives would be for each person. The person in Car A would apologize, assume responsibility for damages, and internally feel remorse. Person in Car B would think it was his karma to be hit, face the situation with equanimity, and not take advantage of person in Car A. The person in Car C would stop and see if anyone needed help in any way.
As another example, to take action to help a hurt human being or animal is natural for a person who is peaceful and compassionate. It may take some effort if one is not by nature peaceful (but efforts such as this, repeatedly, can change that nature). If this peaceful person has some injury, rather than take pity on herself, it is better to attribute the injury to karma and face it with equanimity. I invite you to think about situations today and later.
I think we have to be careful in what we interpret as anekantvada. There tends to be common use of anekantvada to persuade liberality in thinking. Liberality in thinking is not bad or good, but we should be clear on what we are associating with anekantvada. I also find people referring to anekantvad's similarity to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. While I do not claim to understand the theory of relativity, I wonder if some writers who comment about it know exactly what it is either. I suspect that they would like to transfer the respect that is given to science to the concept of anekantvada specifically and Jainism in particular. There is certainly much in spiritual experience that science does not explain or acknowledge. There is much in science, such as testing substances on and killing other living beings to "improve", sometimes in dubious ways, the lives of humans, that many Jains do not support. Thus, I suggest that there are more accurate and productive ways of understanding anekantvada.
I find it difficult to apply the seven-fold nayas and the syadvad/saptabhangi to common situations, but I invite others to further study anekantvada, and change our concepts of these nayas to something less technical and more alive and applicable. I think Pravin Shah has done that with the vyavara and niscaya nayas, and uses them coherently in his explanations of Jainism. I thank him and acknowledge my other source material, which is referenced for further study.
Bibliography:
The Central Philosophy of Jainism: Anekantvada. Bimal Krishna Matilal, 1981, L.D. Institute of Indology.
Compendium of Jainism T.K. Tukol. 1980: Karnatak University.
The Jaina Path of Purification. Padmanabh Jaini. 1979: Univerisity of California.
Scripture and Community. Collected Essays on the Jains by Kendall Folkert. Edited by John Cort. 1983: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University.
Pravin Shah, personal communication.
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