Aptamimamsa

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Aptamimamsa (also Dev?gamastotra) is a Jain text composed by Acharya Samantabhadra, a Jain acharya said to have lived about the latter part of the second century A.D. ?ptam?m??s? is a treatise of 114 verses which discusses the Jaina view of Reality, starting with the concept of omniscience (Kevala Jnana) and the attributes of the Omniscient.

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Content

The english translation of the first verse is:

Attendance of the heavenly beings, movement in the sky, waving of the flywhisks (c?mara) and other symbols of majesty are found even in jugglers; it is not owing to these that thou are great [supreme preacher (guru), worthy of adoration (stutya) and Omniscient (sarvajña or ?pta)].

In Verse 91 acharya asserts that both fate and human-effort are jointly responsible for desirable and undesirable effects.

In Verse 98 acharya propounds that bondage (bandha) is caused due to ignorance 'accompanied' by delusion (moha), and bondage is not caused due to ignorance 'not accompanied' by delusion (moha).

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Jaina Logic

Two important concepts, particular to the Jaina logic, are that of sy?dv?da and anek?ntav?da. These have been discussed comprehensively in Aptamimamsa.

Sy?dv?da

Sy?dv?da is the doctrine of conditional predications. Highlighting the indispensability of sy?dv?da, ?ch?rya Samantabhadra asserts:

Affirmation, when not in conflict with negation, yields the desired result of describing truly an object of knowledge. Only when affirmation and negation are juxtaposed in mutually non-conflicting situation, one is able to decide whether to accept or reject the assertion. This is how the doctrine of conditional predications (sy?dv?da) establishes the truth."

According to the Jains, Sy?dv?da and kevalajñ?na (omniscience) are the foundational facts of knowledge. In this regard, ?ch?rya Samantabhadra writes:

Sy?dv?da, the doctrine of conditional predications, and kevalajñ?na (omniscience), are both illuminators of the substances of reality. The difference between the two is that while kevalajñ?na illumines directly, sy?dv?da illumines indirectly. Anything which is not illuminated or expressed by the two is not a substance of reality and hence a non-substance (avastu).

Anek?ntav?da

Anek?ntav?da means non-absolutism. In Jainism, a thing is supposed to have infinite-fold characteristics or properties. Therefore, the basic thesis in Jainism is the non-one-sided (anek?nta) nature of reality. According to ?ch?rya Samantabhadra:

The nature of reality is such that it can be predicated only through a sentence that incorporates both the affirmation ('that is' - tat) and negation ('that is not' - atat), depending on the point of view. (In case a sentence predicates affirmation, affirmation is the primary theme and negation is present but as a secondary theme; in case a sentence predicates negation, negation is the primary theme and affirmation is present but as a secondary theme.) A predication that takes the absolutist view of either affirmation or negation is not true. And how can one describe the nature of reality through such a false sentence?

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