Studies in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001616
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1951
Total Pages: 366
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Knowledge, Yoga, & Epistemology
File Size: 9 MB

Page 181

[CH.
body. If, however, in the mean time the intellectual ignorance has disappeared on account of the rise of intellectual enlightenment through yoga and other processes, the soul attains to a sense of its identity with the Supreme Reality and consequent emancipation in that very condition of embodied existence (i.e. jivanmukti).2
Monistic Saivism has chalked out a number of processes for the attainment of emancipation, which have distinctive originality of their own. But in order to avoid unnecessary prolixity we do not relate them in this connection.
We now come to the Jaina conception of avidyā.
144
PROBLEM OF AVIDYA
IX
AVIDYA IN THE JAINA SCHOOL
'I am this, this is I, I am of this, mine is this everything that is non-self, living, non-living or mixed. Mine was all this formerly; I was all this in the past; again will this be mine and I shall again be this. The deluded one (sammuḍha) possesses all these false notions about the self. The undeluded, however, knowing the truth, does not do so.'3
In Jainism the term mithyatva (perversity) is generally used to denote the idea of avidya. The terms mithyadarśana or mithyadṛṣṭi (wrong view), darśanamoha (delusion of vision), moha (delusion) etc. are also used in the same sense. The opposite of mithyatva is samyaktua, also known as samyagdarśana (right view). The soul is associated with various kinds of karmans and darśana-moha is one of them.* The karmans obstruct the various capacities of the soul and keep it tied to the wheel of worldly existence. Thus the jñānāvarana (knowledgecovering) karman covers the soul's capacity to know, the darśanāvaraṇa (intuition-covering) karman covers the capacity to intuit, and so on. The function of darśanamoha is to delude the soul and misguide it. Many wrong notions about truth and reality arise due to its influence. It vitiates the whole outlook and is responsible for the wrong assessment of ultimate values. Mithyatva (perversity of outlook) expresses itself in various ways. Under its influence, one accepts the adharma (wrong religion) as the dharma (right religion), the amagga (wrong path) as the magga (right path), the ajiva (non-soul) as the jiva (soul),
1 Cf. tatra dīkṣādinā paumsnam ajñānam dhvamsi yadyapi
tathāpi taccharirante tajjñānam vyajyate sphutam.-Ibid., p. 79.
2 Cf. bauddha-jñänena tu yada bauddham ajñāna-jṛmbhitam
vilīyate tadā jīvan-muktiḥ karatale sthita.-Ibid., p. 81.
3 Kundakunda's Samayaprabhṛta, 25-27 with commentaries (Kashi, 1914). Vide infra, Chap. IV. Section III, 2nd paragraph.