Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 106

CREATION.
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forementioned objects but the things we perceive by sense, and what do we perceive besides our own ideas or sensations ; and is it not plainly repugnant that any one of these or any combination of them should exist unperceived ? If we thoroughly examine this tenet it will, perhaps, be found at bottom to depend on the doctrine of abstract ideas, For can there be a nicer strain of abstraction than to distinguish the existence of sensible objects from their being perceived, so as to conceive them existing unperceived ? Light and colours, heat and cold, extension and figures, in a word, the things we see and feel, what are they but so many sensations, notions, ideas, or impressions on the sense; and is it possible to separate, even in thought, any of these from perception? For my part, I might as easily divide a thing from itself. But my conceiving or imagining power does not extend beyond the possibility of real existence or perception. Hence, as it is impossible for me to see or feel anything without an actual sensation of that thing, so is it impossible for me to conceive in my thoughts any sensible thing or object distinct from the sensation or perception of it" (Principles of Human Knowledge).
It is thus clear that the perception, and, therefore, the knowledge of the sensible world, depends on the functioning of sen ses; in other words, on the conditions of consciousness. Neither perception nor inference is, however, possible without a knowing mind, or spirit, as Berkeley calls it. Hence that which exists can exist only in relation to a knowing subject. But that whose very existence depends on its being perceived by another cannot be described as the true reality, since it is not self-dependent. Hence, the world is like a dream, which exists only in preception. It also follows from this that the true reality, which does not depend on the being of another for proof of its existence, and which is a condition precedent to the knowledge of all other things, is none other than the perceiving faculty or consciousness. Vedanta, therefore, describes the universe as