Jaina Concept of Omniscience

SR No.: 001547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Knowledge
File Size: 17 MB

Page 196

MIMASAKAS OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
183
abandoned (heya). To this one can reply that when the entire world appears in consciousness, these two types of things also appear in it without any incongruity and without losing any of their essential characters, 56
There are some other difficulties also which we shall examine in what follows :
(a) In knowing things existing in all times, one may know the objects of past and future either as they are or as existing in the present. If the omniscient being knows the past and the future which are non-existent, his knowledge would be illusory. If the past and the future are known as existent they are converted into the present. If the past and the future are known by the omniscient as present, his knowledge again would be illusory. Hence in both the cases, omniscience is impossible. 87 But the Jainas turn aside this objection because they hold that past and future are perceived by the omniscient not as present, but as past and future. Hence, there is no question of its being illusory. The past and the future things are as much existent and real in relation to their own time as the present things are in relation to the present. Infact the omniscient knows past objects as existing in the past and future things as existing in the future.3 8
(b) If the omniscient knows all objects at one and the same time he would become unconscious in the next moment because he would have nothing left to cognise.39 But this would be absurd. The Jainas in reply to this objection, say that this objection would have been valid if both the perception of the omniscient and the entire world were annihilated in the
36 Kamalašīla in his comm. on the Tattva-sangraha of śāntarakṣita,
3627 discusses in detail many objections some of which have been
presented here in brief. 37 Prabhācandra, Nyaya-kumud-candra, p. 88, Prameya-kamala-martanda,
p. 254. 38 Ibid., Prameya-kamala-martanda, p. 261. 39 Ibid., Prame ya-kamala-martanda, p. 261.