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 98

AVADHI
61
conceived as twofold viz. (1) perceptuali and (2) non-perceptual, and avagraha, ihā etc. are held to fall in the former and inference, recollection etc. are held to fall in the latter group, then logic will demand that śruta also should be treated as a case of non-perceptual mati and not as a separate category. Thus does Yaśovijaya vindicate the position of the great logician Siddhasena Divakara whom he often quotes in his treatises with great veneration, and sometimes refers to him by the term navya (neo-logician). Siddhasena was a great logical genius and Yaśovijaya, as an inspired admirer of him, gives him the status of a neo-logician of ancient times in view of his pure logical speculations that were the characteristic of the age that was to come after a millennium from his own time.
AVADHI
The Jainas believe in the capacity of the soul to know all things irrespective of temporal and spatial distance. The past as well as the future can be perceived as vividly as the present. The soul is inherently capable of perceiving all things with all their characteristics -past, present and future. But this capacity of the soul is obstructed by jñānāvaraniya karman which veils the soul and permits it only an imperfect comprehension of the world. The nature and extent of the knowing capacity of a soul, therefore, depend upon the nature of the veil. But never can the veil obstruct the knowing capacity completely because in that case the soul would become as good as non-soul. The knowledge of the soul is never totally obstructed by the veil even as the light of the sun or the moon is never totally obstructed even by the darkest clouds. There is always some glimpse of the external world, however imperfect or sometimes even perverted it may be. For the sake of systematic investigation, the various states of knowledge, ranging from the most imperfect and perverted knowledge of the onesensed organisms up to the most perfect knowledge of the kevalin (omniscient), have been classified into five categories viz. mati, śruta, avadhi, manahparyāya and kevala. Of these, we have dealt with mati and śruta which, as we have seen, are dependent upon the help of the various external organs. But now we come to those categories which do not depend upon any sense-organ. Of course, even in the case of
1 sāṁvyavahārika-pratyakşa.
2 yadi ca avagrahādibhedāḥ sāṁvyavahārika-pratyakşarūpasyai 'va matijñānasya sūtre proktäh, anumånadikam tu parokşa-matijñānam arthataḥ siddham iti 'syate, tarhi śrutasabda-vyapadeśyam sabda-jñānam api parokşa-mati-jñānam evā 'ngikriyatām.--JBP, p. 16.
3 The term navyāḥ in footnote 2 page 60 refers to Siddhasena.
4 jai puņa so 'vi āvarijjá teņam jīvo ajīvattar pāvijjā.-sutthu vi mehasamudaye, hoi pabhã carda-sūrānam' -NS, 42.