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-
- Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism,MLBD,Delhi,2004,Pp-79
- “Brahma satyam jagat mithya jivo brahmaiva naparah”,thous goes the famous dictum of the Advaitins.
- For details see Satkari Mookerjee, The Buddhist Philosophy of universal Flux, University of Calcutta press, 1935.
- Utpad- vyaya-dhrauvyayuktamsat.-The tattvarth sutra 5/29
- Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism,MLBD,Delhi,2004,Pp-79-80
- John M. Koller, “Why is Anekantvada Important,”A,A.and Jainism,Pp-90.
- For detail see “Ahimsa,Anekanta and Jainism”,MLBD,Delhi,2004,Pp-79
- “Nayo jnaturabhiprayah.”Acarya Aklanka ,Laghiyastraya,3/6/52
- Sanmati Tarka,Siddhasen,3/47
- Nyayavatara,Siddhasen,29
- Praman naya tattvalokalankara,Vadidevasuri , 7/5-6
- Sarvarthsiddhi,Pujyapad,1/33
- ibid
- Gommattasara karmkand,Acarya Nemicandra,Gataha-895
- Sanmati Tarka,Siddhasen,3/47-48
- Visesavasyak bhasya part-2,Gatha-2265
- Syadvadamanjari,Mallisen,28/316/7
- Adhyatmasara,jinmatistuti
- Jain tarkabhasa,Yashovijaya,edited by Prof. D.N.Bhargava.Mlbd,Delhi
- Upadhyay Yshovijaya
- Geeta vigyan Bhasya,vol-1,Allahabad,V.S.1993,Pp-64
- ibid-66
- 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
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