NAYAVAD: AN APPROACH OF RECONCILIATION

NAYAVAD: AN APPROACH OF RECONCILIATION

-DR ANEKANT KUMAR JAIN*

We may either support/or refute/ a particular principle/or we may offer creative criticism evaluating the merits and demerits of that principle in an objective way.

An approach of Reconciliation

 It is true that the Jains also adopted a negative approach to the non-jain systems in the middle ages but side by side, they adopted the objective attitude also through nayavad, This was based on the assumption that if we experience identity and difference both none of the two can be held as false .As regards the contradiction between the two we can resolve the contradiction by accepting relative truth of both of them-

          Parsamyanam vayanam miccham khalu hoi savvaha vayna.

                         Jenanam puna vayanam sammam khu kahamcivayanado¹⁴..

The matter of the fact is that even though the reality is multidimensional but we can express only one of them at one time. We select only that dimension which the speaker and listener chose to convey or know   Vakturabhiprayo nayah and jnaturabhipryayo nayah. As the intention of the speaker could be many fold there could be many statements regarding on object. The Sankya system is dravya oriented where as Buddhist philosophy is paryay oriented. Jain doesn’t overlook any one of them, Aacharya Siddhasenadiwakar said-¹⁵

         Javaiya vayanavaha tavaiya cheva honti nayavaya.

                         Javaiya nayavaya tavaiya cheva honti parsamya...

         Jam kavilam darisanam eyam davvatithyassavattavvam .

                         Suddho anatana assa o parisuddho pajjavaviappo...

Visesavasyak bhasya support this view point-¹⁶

         Javanto vayana paha , tavanto va naya visaddhao .

                         Te ceva ya parsamya , sammatam samudiya savve . .

Aacarya  Hemchandrasuri recommends the use of ‘Syad’ word for qualifying the statements. Mallisen in his commentary on syadvadamanjari identifies different systems of philosophy with different nayas .¹⁷ Upadhyay Yashovijaya following the same tradition observes in Adhyatamasar.¹⁸ In Jaintarkbhasa he explains that if we insist on a particular viewpoint being the whole truth it becomes a false naya .¹⁹ As regards that comparative value of naya all nayas are or of equal importance²⁰-

                                                            Yasya sarvatra samta nayesu tanyesviva.

                                         Tasyaanekantavadasya kva nunadhiksemukhi..

                                         Ten syadvadmalambya sarvadarshan tulyatam.

                                          Mokshoddesavesesena yah pasyati sah sastravit..

                         Historically the treatment of naya in Jain tradition is older than treatment of praman. The essence of the nays is to place any viewpoint in a proper perspective.

                        The Vedic systems of Indian Philosophy did not talk about nayas but Pandit Madhusudan Ojha, a modern thinker, did apply this technique for reconciling the different Vedic systems of Philosophy.²¹ He also uses the word Naya in the context.²²

                        Thus we find that seeds of adopting a reconciliatory approach are available in Jainism which need to be amplified in modern times because as Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj wrote in 1951 that-

            ‘We have had enough of analytical work attempting to describe the different                                                                                                                                              systems in isolation , taking each as a distinct prasthana , Times has come  when   scholars should come out from  their narrow grooves , take up a synthetic view of things ,and try to discover the underlying unity and interpret India’s out look as a whole.’²³

  References-

1. Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism,MLBD,Delhi,2004,P_p-79
2. “Brahma satyam jagat mithya jivo brahmaiva naparah”,thous goes the famous dictum of the Advaitins.
3. For details see Satkari Mookerjee, The Buddhist Philosophy of universal Flux, University of Calcutta press, 1935.
4. Utpad- vyaya-dhrauvyayuktamsat.-The tattvarth sutra 5/29
5.  Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism,MLBD,Delhi,2004,P_p-79-80

6. John M. Koller, “Why is Anekantvada Important,”A,A.and Jainism,Pp-90.
7. For detail see “Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism”,MLBD,Delhi,2004,P_p-79
8. “Nayo jnaturabhiprayah.”Acarya Aklanka ,Laghiyastraya,3/6/52
9. Sanmati Tarka,Siddhasen,3/47
10. Nyayavatara,Siddhasen,29
11. Praman naya tattvalokalankara,Vadidevasuri , 7/5-6
12. Sarvarthsiddhi,Pujyapad,1/33
13. ibid
14. Gommattasara karmkand,Acarya Nemicandra,Gataha-895
15. Sanmati Tarka,Siddhasen,3/47-48
16. Visesavasyak bhasya part-2,Gatha-2265
17. Syadvadamanjari,Mallisen,28/316/7
18. Adhyatmasara,jinmatistuti
19. Jain tarkabhasa,Yashovijaya,edited by Prof. D.N.Bhargava.Mlbd,Delhi
20. Upadhyay Yshovijaya
21. Geeta vigyan Bhasya,vol-1,Allahabad,V.S.1993,Pp-64
22. ibid-66
23. Forward-By Gopinath kaviraj, “Studies in jain Philosophy”, Nathmal Tatia, P.V.R.Institute, Varanasi, 1951.

             

   * Dr Anekant Kumar Jain,Asst.Professor, Deptt.of Jain Philosophy, Sri Lalbahadur Shastri Rastriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, (Deemed University), Katwaria sarai, New Delhi.

E-mail-anekant76@yahoo.co.in , 09711397716