All reality is relative

Apr 4, 2010, 12.00am IST
PRANAV KHULLAR.


Ahimsa, the most important tenet in Jainism, explores the psychological intent to hurt and harm another and turns the focus inward from an actual act of violence to the intentionality of the act.

Ahimsa is seen as the abjuring of violent and hurtful thoughts for another, possible only when we realise the relevance of `parasparopagraho jivanam' - the concept of interdependence. All life is inextricably connected and ahimsa is nothing but expression and mindfulness of natural empathy for another.

Ahimsa, an ethical principle, is rooted in the Jaina metaphysics of anekantavada which details the many-sidedness or anekanta of reality; that no single point of view can be construed as being the whole truth. The story of the five blind men who gave their own perspective of the elephant is a good example of the way we tend to see one or two aspects of anything and perhaps jump to the conclusion that what we perceive to be is the whole truth, whereas it is not the only truth. There could be as many versions of the truth as there are those trying to comprehend it.


The philosophical concept of anekantavada is further elaborated upon in the abstruse logic of 'saptabhanginaya'--- the doctrine of seven conditioned predications, wherein each statement is expressed from seven different relative points of view, and each view is prefixed by a "maybe" or "relatively" (syad), so perhaps a thing is real, and perhaps it isn't, in relative terms, and it could be both real and unreal. Similarly, something could be indescribable, maybe real but indescribable. This dialectic of the relativity of knowledge, popularly known as syadvad, rules out any categorical or absolutist pronouncement, and shows how each judgment can effectively be only relative and conditional. Syadvad dissects the empirical world psychologically, and in so doing, seeks to reveal the relativity of the mind itself.


This theory of dealing with partial truths is also the philosophical basis for ethical living with the principle of ahimsa, for it prepares the ground for acceptance and respect of opposing views. This would help introspection of one's own claims and enable respecting varied opinions.


Anekantavada is positioned midway between the Vedantic assertion of Brahmn as Absolute and the Buddhist postulation of 'change as permanent' and offers its own pragmatic blueprint for a more peaceful existence, where all views are accommodated out of the belief that all minds are relatively conditioned, and are actually interdependent. But this analysis of the empirical world is also ironically meant to be a call to the path of renunciation, after having understood the unreal and relative nature of things, and who, through right conduct, right faith and right reflection, has progressively detached himself from externalities and is now ready to follow and attain the `Mahavira state of mind' -- "where karmic matter has thinned out and the soul expands to be one with the cosmos."


Anekantavada is the cornerstone of Jaina thought, the metaphysics of which defines the Jaina ethical way of living with compassion through the five anuvratas laid down for the shraviks or laypersons. The five anuvratas are: ahimsa, satya, asteya or non-stealing, brahmacharya or celibacy and aparigraha or non-possession. It then provides, in rare cases, the trigger to pursue the Jaina ideal of renunciation -- Kaivalya-Jnana - possible by living the ascetic life of a sramana. This was how Mahavira set out in search of the real nature of reality, to explore what lay beyond the contours of the conditioned mind.

Tomorrow is Mahavir Jayanti.