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 88

SOUL-PSYCHOLOGY AND OMNISCIENCE
75
( Antarāya).9 Their removal brings four types of perfections ( ananta-catus taya ).10 The Tattvārtha Sūtra definition of Upayoga (consciousness ) is wide enough to cover not only apprehension (darśana) and comprehension (jñāna) but also bliss and power.11 A pure soul has destroyed the four Ghātī Karmas, existing in an auspicious body, possessed of infinite apprehension, comprehension, happiness and power.13 It is inherently possessed of these fourfold infinities. But there is no pure or perfect soul in the empirical world. This means that the soul in its perfect form is ontologically real but not empirically real. However, there are different degrees of purity, extent, depth and fineness of apprehension and comprehension in different individuals. We can justifiably assume at the end of the series, a perfect soul, having perfect apprehension, comprehension, power and bliss. Every soul must be potentially perfect, because if it is not, it cannot gain perfection which is said to be its destiny and goal. The logic is simple : “there can be no destruction of things that do exist, nor can there be creation of things out of nothing."15 This state is the total separation of soul from the matter. But it remains only an ideal for mundane or embodied selves. The liberated souls alone attain this pure and perfect state.”'14
The Nyāya-Vaišeșika does not accept the Jaina position. Consciousness to them is an adventitious quality of the soul which comes temporarily as an effect of a complex cognitive machinery i.e. grasp between sense and object and then be.
9 T. Süt. X. 1.
10 Ibid., II. 12. 11 Tattvārtha Sutra, II. 8 (Laksanı or differentia of soul may be either
inseparable (Atmabhita) or separable (Anātmabhuta). Consciousness is inseparable but a celestial condition of existence is a separable qua
lity of the soul. 12 Drav yasangraha, 50. 13 Pañcāstikayasāra, 15, Cp. Gita, II. 16; Sankhya-K ārikā & Sankhya
-Tattva-Kaumudi, 8. 14 Samayasāra, 406.