Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics

SR No.: 001619
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Religion, & Epistemology
File Size: 8 MB

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not the sensations of all objects at one and the same time? The Naiyāyika's explain it by saying that before any sensation can arise, Manas has got to be in touch with the corresponding sense-organ. The non-simultaneity of sensations thus proves that there is a principle, the Manas, which determines the genesis of all sensuous knowledge, each unit of which follows and never co-exists with another. It also proves that Manas in every body is one. If Manas were more than one there would have been no reason why sensations should not be simultaneous. Some objectors point out that there may be such cases as that of a professor who while going on the way may be found to repeat sacred words, to hold a water pot in his hand, keep his eyes on the pathway, hear sounds from a forest, guess the approach of a ferocious animal from the sound and think about reaching the place of safety as soon as possible. All these appear to bed done by the professor at one and the same time. And if this be so, Manas cannot be one in a body. The thinkers of the Nyāya school, on the contrary, contend that these acts of the professor are not really simultaneous. They are successive but the intervals between the several acts being very slight, they appear to be simultaneous. Manas is one, it moves with incredible celerity from act to act. Another contention of the Nyāya thinkers in this connection is that Manas is not only one in a body but that it is non-pervasive or atomic in nature. For, if it were of the extent of the body, it would have been in simultaneous touch with all the sense-organs; nay, if it had even the smallest extent, it could at least touch two points in a body. In any of the cases it would have been possible for Manas to generate more than one sensation at a time. But all sensations are strictly successive. This shows that Manas is but an atomic point, having no dimension at all and incapable of touching more than one sense-organ at a time.
NON-SIMULTANEITY OF IDEAS
It is the atomic Manas that accounts for the non-simultaneity of our sensations. Some philosophers maintained