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 224

SOME POSITIVE JAINA ARGUMENTS..
which no rememberance would be possible. This means that unless a person has got previous knowledge of the omniscient being, he cannot prove his non-existence. Then the countercorelative of the non-existence of the omniscient being is his own existence. Then to deny its accredited locus in all times and places will imply omniscience at least of the said perceiver.
IV. Some Positive Jaina Arguments for the Existence of
the Omniscient Being
Besides the foregoing arguments intended to disprove the non-existence of the omniscient being via meeting the objections of the Mimāṁsakas, the Jainas have formulated certain important arguments of their own for the existence of the omniscient being. In the Agamas, the existence of omniscience was a matter of religious faith and hence therein we find no systematic aad logical argument. But when this faith was challenged, particularly, by the Mimāṁsakas, the Jaina thinkers had to advance positive reasons besides making attempts to meet their objections.
(A) Argument from the Nature of Soul as Consciousness
Consciousness being the nature of the soul, the two are not different things which can be separated from each other, nor they are related together by some external relation like, samavāya. They argue as follows: the soul is either conscious or unconscious before it is being related to cosciousness through external relation. Now, if the soul is conscious from the beginning, being related to consciousness by inherence, it is absurd; but if it is as unconscious, it may be so either due to its relation of inherence with unconsciousness, or due to its being with unconsciousness. If the former is the case, the second inherence is again useless, since the soul is already accepted as unconscious; but if it is one with unconsciousness, it is similar to the case in which the soul is accepted to be one with consciousness. In short, there cannot be any objec.