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JAINISM
Eight classes of energies (karmas) unnatural to the pure soul.*
CLASS 1. (JNANAVARANIYA)
Energies in us the nature of which is to obscure knowledge.
Knowledge is the very essence of the soul. Consciousness, knowledge, and soul are much about the same thing. Knowledge is a positive state of the living being. The instrumental cause of knowledge is the teacher, language, the thing unknown, or a representation of it. The teacher does not literally impart knowledge; he is simply the instrumental cause or means whereby the person is enabled to develop his own knowledge. The substantial cause of knowledge is the soul, in the sense that a thing is the cause of its own qualities. Knowledge cannot be put into a person from the outside; it must be self-developed. And the words of an instructor will not produce knowledge in the pupil unless the pupil is in the right state.
There are five kinds of knowledge, † and so there are five kinds of knowledge obscuring energies (jnanavaraniya karma).
1. Any energy or activity which obscures knowledge by the senses. (Matijnana).
2. Any energy which obscures knowledge got by interpretation of signs (shrutajnana). Words are signs of
* A dogmatical exposition of the subject is given in Tattvarthadhigama Sutra VIII 5 ff (German translation, 1. c. p. 529 ff).
† Tattvarthadhigama, I. 9 ff. German translation, 1. c. p. 294. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
