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Advaita Trends in Jainism
many others formulated it; Jainas1 and Advaita2 too have recommended it. Deussen rightly says that "the Para-vidya is nothing but metaphysics in an empiric dress, i. e., Vidya as it appears considered from the standpoint of Avidya, the realism innate in us. Thus the distinction between the practical and real standpoints of view is a common feature of Vedanta and Jainism, may even of Buddhism of the Upanisads. Concept of Omniscience
Our phenomenal knowledge suggests the noumenal as a necessity of thought but not as something known to through the empirical pramaņas. Owing to the apparent inadequacy of empirical knowledge, Jainism and Vedantins have developed another organon of knowledge. Not content with Mati, Śruta, Avadhi and Manaḥ-paryaya, Jainas have developed the theory of Keval-jñāna or omniscience which is the highest type of perception which falls in the category of extra-sensory perceptions, where the soul intuits all substances with all their modes. Nothing remains unknown in omniscience. Self and knowledge are co-extensive. Its apprehension is simultaneous sudden and obiquitus. This is practically the same as intuition or integral experience, Anubhava or Sakṣatkara (Direct perception ), Samyag Jñana3, i. e., perfect knowledge or Samyag Darśana (Perceptionintuition) in Advaita Vedanta. Omniscience is the culmination of the faculty of cognition of conscious principle10. It is the
1. Samaya-sara (Introduction), p. CLI.
2. V. P. (Siddhanta Leśa Sangraha), 1.
3. Deussen System of Vedanta, p. 100.
4. Radhakrishnan, S.: Indian Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 509. 5. Mehta, M. L.: Outlines of Jaina Philosophy, p. 99.
6. Tattvartha-Sutra, 1. 30; Avaśyaka-Niryukti, 77.
7. Samkhya-Sutra-Bhāṣya, 1. 31.
8. Sankara Bhasya on Brahma-sutra, 1. 2. 8.
9. Ibid, 1. 3. 13.
10. Mehta, M. L.: Outlines of Jaina Philosophy, p. 102.
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