Aptavani-4
357
Dadashri: Our (Gnani’s) speech is a ‘taped-record’,
and so is yours. Except the Gnani’s speech is syadvaad
(speech that does not hurt anyone).
Questioner: Is syadvaad speech that is chetan (living)?
Dadashri: Speech can never have life; whether it is yours
or ‘ours’. Yes, ‘our’ speech (vani) emanates, after having
touched the absolute pure Self, and so it appears to be alive.
Questioner: Can one say ‘speech (vani) is lifeless
(jada)’?
Dadashri: It is okay to say, ‘speech is lifeless’, but you
can never say speech has life. When you press on a car horn,
doesn’t it produce a honking sound? When you press it like that,
the parmanus (subatomic particles) that are in it, become
agitated and collide with one another, to create all this noise. Just
listen to the sound coming out of the horn! That is how it all
comes out of the ‘horn’, after continuously colliding. All this is
‘mechanical’. The Atma is itself Parmatma (the absolute Soul).
Syadvaad Speech
Questioner: Your speech, the speech of the Gnani, what
is it like?
Dadashri: It is syadvaad (speech that does not hurt
anyone); it is considered anekant (impartial; perspective of
universal acceptance).
Questioner: What does syadvaad mean?
Dadashri: It is speech that will not hurt the foundation of
any religion. Such speech is embraced by Vaishnavs, Jains,
Swetambars, Digambars, Sthanakvasi, Parsis, Muslims. They
will all ‘accept’ it. It is not ekantik (partial; polemic; individualized
perspective) towards any single viewpoint. It is anekantik
(impartial; accepting of all viewpoints and accepted by all).