EDUCATION
Applying Anekantavad: Using Manifoldness to Find Solutions By Bhavin Jto haveri Applying Anekantavad: Using Manifoldness Find Solutions By Bhavin Jhaveri
Bhavin Jhaveri (BJ) is the Founder and Executive Coach at VinPro Coaching, a career growth and performance consulting company based in New Jersey. His portfolio includes over a decade of leading the business operations of a Tech consulting services organization. He is a Member of the Board of Advisors at the American Institute of Medical Sciences. For his exemplary work as an Industry Advisory Council member at the Edison Job Corps Academy, he was honored with the Community Star Award. Email: bhavin.jhaveri@gmail.com
Anekantavad is Jainism’s outstanding contribution to mankind. As per Lord Mahavir, we need to respect the perspectives of others while believing in our faith. He believed that by constructive dialogue based on mutual respect and a non-violent spirit, we can remove the disparities in our society. This timeless wisdom finds renewed relevance in our complex and divisive world. Let's embark on a journey to explore the contemporary applications of Anekantavad and its significance. Understanding Anekantvad Anekantavad in simple terms means many-sidedness of a situation or in other words non-absolutism. Jainism states that any situation is seldom absolute or one-sided. Thus it encourages a discussion between the parties for integrating and reconciling their viewpoints. In order to resolve conflicts and disagreements, it is vital that we keep an open mind to other people’s opinions and listen actively and empathetically. Essentially, this means that the people involved view the situation from someone else’s perspective in addition to their own viewpoint. This is akin to embracing the diversity of thought that characterizes our world today. We understand the significance of this principle through a story. A group of blind men who have never come across an elephant are touching and conceptualizing what it seems. Each man touched a different part of the elephant.The first man touched the elephant's body. It felt hard, big, and wide. He said: “It’s like a wall”. The second man touched one of the elephant's tusks. It felt smooth, hard, and sharp. He said: “It’s like a spear”. The third man touched the elephant's trunk. It felt long, thin, and wiggly. He said: “It’s like a snake”. The fourth man touched one of the legs. It felt thick, rough, hard, and round. He said: “It’s like a tree”. The fifth man touched one of the elephant's ears. It felt thin, and it moved. He said: “It’s like a fan”. The sixth man touched the elephant's tail. It felt long, thin, and strong. He said: “It’s like a rope”. 20
The moral of the story is that truth is relative to one's own experience, and because the truth is relative, we all should respect the perspective of others. This is due to the rationale that their views of reality are based on a different belief than our own. Thus, they view the situation through their own filter of deep-seated thinking and are conditioned through their own belief system. The Need for Anekantavad When we are thrown into complex problems we try hard to figure out various options and find a solution. In case all of our attempts to find a viable solution fail, we could explore the spirit of Anekantavad to come to our rescue. Instead of focusing on finding the solution, we could probe and examine the problem itself. We could analyze its traits, its multiple facets, and the different angles or viewpoints. If we were just to open up and consider different viewpoints, our probability of finding a creative solution would be far greater. By describing the problem using multiple points of view we may evolve to figure out the solution. Essentially, a lateral view of the problem and framing it through several different points of view could lead us to discover an innovative solution! Let us understand how this perspective could be applied to similar situations in our lives.
