Compendium of Jainism

SR No.: 001202
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar
Publication Year: 1980
Total Pages: 352
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 103

JIVA OR THE THEORY OF SOUL
There is a difference of view on this point. According to Hemacandra, apprehension (darśana) is the cognisance of an object which does not take place immediately after the sense-object contact. Apprehension, according to him, is the stuff which is transformed into comprehension (Jñāna). It is an established fact that nothing is produced which was absolutely non-existent and nothing existent is totally destroyed. Thus, apprehension itself undergoes transformation into the subsequent state, i. e. comprehension." Darśana is more or less the first stage of knowledge; it may be without details or may cosists of only an indefinite cognition. Jnāna or knowledge consists in the cognition of the details.
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Darśana is of four kinds : Cakṣu, Acakṣu, avadhi and kevala. This means that there are four kinds of apprehension: Visual apprehension, non-visual apprehension, psychic apprehension or clairvoyance and perfect apprehension. Apprehension with the aid of eyes is Cakṣu Darśana. Acakṣu Darśana apprehension derived with the aid of the mind, ear, nose, tongue or the skin. All these are the means of apprehension without the aid of eyes and hence such Daśrana is called Acakṣu Dasrana. Avadhi Darśana is apprehension derived through the soul directly. Modern psychical researches have shown that there could be cognition without the aid of senses and the mind. Such phenomena as clairvoyance, telepathy, clairaudience and the like have been recorded to prove the validity of occurrence of extra-sense perceptions. Those who are endowed with this power grasp the secret thoughts of other individuals without using their sense-organs. They also perceive events more or less remote in space and time. 10 Most of the modern psychologists like McDaugal, H. H. Price and others have recognised that there is ample evidence to bear out the validity of the ancient belief in telepathy and clairvoyance as a great faculty of cognition in human beings through which information not possible for the senses to acquire, can be received. In Kevala Darśana or perfect apprehension, there is congition of everything in the three worlds existent in the present, the past and the future.