Presented in collaboration with the Bhagwan 1008 Adinatha Swamy Jain Temple, under the auspices of the Gyan and Kanchan Jain Chair in Jain Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Sunday, April 6, 2025
12:00 pm EDT – Lecture
1:15 pm EDT – Complimentary lunch
In-Person at: Bhagwan 1008 Adinatha Swamy Jain Temple
7875 Mayfield Rd, Brampton, ON L7E 0W1 (Map)
Can’t attend in person? A recording of this presentation will be sent to all registrants post-event.
What exactly is anekāntavāda (the Jain philosophy of non-one-sidedness), how does it work, and why is it important? The answers to these questions are often taken for granted nowadays, given anekāntavāda's usual positioning alongside ahiṃsā (respect for all living things and avoidance of violence toward others) and aparigraha (the letting go of excessive attachments and desires, focusing on living simply and without grasping) as one of the "three As" at the core of Jainism. However, appreciation of its function and role can be deepened and enriched by examining how it was formulated by its traditional progenitors (prabhāvak).
Join Professor Anil Mundra as he examines the ways in which Jain thought and practice - in the hands of one of its foremost exponents, Ācārya Haribhadra Sūri (a Jain leader, philosopher, doxographer, and author) - is inconceivable without anekāntavāda.
SPEAKER BIO
Anil Mundra is the Bhagvan Vimalnath Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and South Asian Religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, he was the Alka Siddhartha Dalal Postdoctoral Fellow for the study of Jainism at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He completed his doctorate in the Philosophy of Religions program at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
His research focuses on how South Asian philosophers conceptualize and confront religious diversity, particularly in Sanskrit texts on the classical Jain theory of non-one-sidedness (anekāntavāda). Recently, he has been applying this material to discourses on religious pluralism, toleration, and comparative theology.
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