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Conflict Removing Vision of Jainism
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ways. We can't say that the views of one philosopher are right while others are wrong. They may be true from their angle, hence the harmony towards the persons of different ideas should be maintained. We can have an example of the photographs of a building taken from different angles. Every photograph is true from an angle, but we can't say that photograph taken by me is only true and other photographs are wrong. Here, all the photographs depict a photo of the same object from the different angles; hence all the photographs may be correct from different points of view. We have to examine the truth or true value of all the photographs. Similarly all the religious and philosophical thoughts have some truth or true value, but we have to examine and then accept them. This is the message of anekāntavāda of Jain philosophy.
Anekāntavāda suggests us that the thoughts of different individuals may have some component of truth, hence we should try to understand and respect others point of view. It will help us avoiding many possible conflicts and resolving them in a harmonious atmosphere.
Tirthankara Mahāvīra has propounded many views to know and to examine the objects. In Jaina canonical text vyākhyāprajñapti sūtra, a question was raised about the universe (loka) - Is the loka endless or has an end? Mahāvīra replied this question from four points of views from the point of view of substance (dravya) the universe is finite. From the point of view of space also it is finite. From the point of view of time it is endless and from the view of modes
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