________________
55
bof which inte ore in the compreenises
because the obstacles which come in the way of science are not there. Science has to commit mistakes and think they do not; still knowledge is. derived from inferences which we draw from certain premises which may not be right or if the premises are right the inferences may be wrong. We do not mean to say that there are always mistakes in the knowledge which is acquired through sensation or through matter, but sometimes it is possible, and while it may be correet knowledge in many cases we cannot rely on that. The highest kuowledge is immediate knowledge, derived by the soul without the assistance of any external thing, and the knowledge of liberated souls, and also the knowledge of human beings who are just on the point of being liberated, or have passed through the course of discipline, mental, moral and spiritual and have nearly exhausted past forces, at the same time, generating spiritual forces, and on account of discipline and spiritual evolution have become receptive. The soul sees everything when this state is arrived at; it knows everything is fully conscious and consciousness itself means first of all that it knows itself, and to know one's self means that it is something, some reality, and there can be ns reality unless it can distinguish itself from other realities. Only one universal thing could not know itself, because knowledge implies compar!ng one with another, and if that is not done there is no individuality. We
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
