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education Anekantvad – Life Force of Jain Philosophy By Anop R Vora, Rochester, NY
Anop Vora is involved in Community services and Promotion of Professional Education in the Jain Community. His current interests include: Listening to the Spiritual Discourses, Meditation, Reading and Writing on the religious topics. e-mail: vora5000@yahoo.com
What is Anekantvad? The concept of Anekantvad in Jainism signifies plurality of characteristics of a real substance or the object of knowledge or a situation. It is a theory of manifoldness of reality which teaches us that in order to arrive at the absolute truth, one should take into account all possible angles of vision regarding any object or situation. It is based on the premise that no single perspective on these entities contains the whole truth. Substance, time, place and the condition of the observers; color the judgements and viewpoints and therefore they must all be considered to arrive at the truth. Jainism stipulates that truth in any situation or relationship is seldom absolute and one-sided and that is the reason it encourages dialogue that allows reconciliation, integration and synthesis of sometimes conflicting standpoints. It is, in a way, equivalent to spiritual democracy aimed at peace and harmony. This implies that to resolve human conflicts and disagreements, it is very imperative that all parties keep an open mind towards different opinions and do so with active listening. This would force the people involved to look at every problem through someone else’s eyes. Nayvad and Syadvad To understand Anekantvad properly, we need to be aware of two terms called “Nayvad: and “Syadvad”. Nayvad recognizes the existence of the innumerable views (nayas) and Syadvad focuses on the partial truth in these views with the recognition that each view point is relative. Firstly, it is true only in the context that one has in mind. For example, same person could be a father, a husband, a son or a brother etc. Secondly, none of us has the perfect knowledge and vision; like what Tirthankaras or Kevalis possess; to know a situation or an event perfectly with 100% certainty. That is the reason every view should be listened to because each throws light on some part of the reality; each carries a strand of truth. By paying attention to all propositions, we have a much better chance to know the reality with greater precision. Once we accept this concept, it would be easy for us to at least admit that that we may be wrong! This admission is very difficult for stubborn and close minded people and attitude of this type has caused wars sometimes! Limitations of Human Beings Jainism says that most living human beings run around with partial and incomplete truths and thus are limited in their capacity to resolve the conflicts. Even human speech has its imperfection. We often argue based upon own ignorance. Many times we even do not know that we do not know and thus stumble in resolving our problems. If we were just to be aware of this human weakness and open up and listen to the other viewpoints, our chances of finding creative solutions would be far better. The parable below illustrates the concepts of Anekantvad and Syadvad rather neatly.
6 Blind men touching different parts of an elephant and their interpretation of what it is
