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 91

54
EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE ÄGAMAS
[CH.
samjñā. The five-sensed sammūrchanaja beings i.e. gross-bodied beings born without sex relation) possess this capacity in a very small measure and as such are regarded as asamjñins in comparison with those possessing a developed capacity. Those beings who can discriminate between the desirable and the undesirable and can act accordingly for the maintenance of their bodies, but cannot think on the past or future, are called hetuvāda-sarjñins. The organisms having two or more sense-organs are included in this category. The comparatively inactive one-sensed organisms such as the earth-bodied beings are called asamjñins in comparison with the organisms possessing two or more sense-organs. Now we come to the destivādopadeśiki sarjñā. A being having right faith and possessed of knowledge due to subsidence-cum-destruction of karmic veil is called sarjñin from the point of view of drsţi (faith); and such being having wrong faith is called. asamjñin. A being possessed of perfect knowledge born of complete destruction of all karmic veil is not samjñin inasmuch as he, being omniscient, cannot possess the functions of recollection and pondering of future, which constitute samjñā.5 A being having wrong or perverted faith is mithyādrsti, and is also called asamjñin, because his samjñā, though competent to discriminate between what is wholesome and what is unwholesome, is, from the point of view of dysti (faith), perverted or misplaced.
We have thus studied the three types of samjñā. There remains now one more type called üha orogha-sarjñā. We have translated this sarnjñā as instinct and have also enumerated its varieties.? Jinabhadra says that this ūha or ogha-sanjñā (which belongs to such beings as the earth-bodied) is not to be called sarjñā in comparison with the hetuvāda-samjñā ; similarly, the hetuvāda-samjñā is not to be called samjñā in comparison with the kāliki-sarjñā ; and similarly the kālikisamjñā is not be called samjñā in comparison with the drstivādasamjñā. The samjñins and asamjñins are thus to be considered relatively. Jinabhadra gives the following classification of sarjñin beings. The five classes of one-sensed organisms possess üha-sarjña ; the organisms possessing two or more sense-organs possess hetu-sarjñā ; the denizens of heaven and hell as well as the beings born of womb possess kāliki-sarjñā ; the samjñā of the samyagdrsti chadmastha (a
1 See Byhadvịtti, Vibh, 509.
2 Ibid., Vibh, 511. 3 See Vibh, 515-516 and Byhadurtti. 4 sammadiţthi saņņi samte nāņe khauvasamiyammi
asaņņi micchattammi ditthivāovaeseņa.-Vibh, 517. 5 See Vibh, 518.
Cf. Vibh, 519-520. ? Supra p. 52. Oha orogha is a particular kind of samjñā (instinct). But Jinabhadra uses the term to indicate the ten instincts.
8 Vibh, 522.