Jaina Epistemology

SR No.: 006738
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1990
Total Pages: 516
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

Page 270

Indirect Knowledge
245
Buddhist do not make this distinction. According to Buddhism the substance is nothing but a collection of qualities. Abhidbarma says that the earth is nothing but the colour and form. 1 The Jaina holds that the quality and substance are not quite separate. They are different as well as identical. The sensation of one cannot be differentiated from that of the other. So, all the senses apprehend quality as well as the substance.
Fast and Slow Processes of sensation
The Jaina admission of the visual sense as a distance-receptor and the other senses as contact-receptors gives rise to the .conception of two speeds in the process of cogaition. The senses working after close contact begin their process from Vyañjanā vagraha (the contact between sense and the object). The amount of knowledge is so scanty, at this stage, that one does not feel as cognising anything. This state is compared with the first drop of water thrown on a new earthen-ware, just out from the even.9 The first drop disappears totally without deaving any apparent mark; yet we cannot say that it went without any effect. A series of similar drops produces a clear effect. Had the first drop been without any effect the subsequent drops also could not produce any effect.
Similarly, when we call a sleeping person, the first call goes unheeded; but, when called repeatedly, he wakes up. We cannot say that the first call was absolutely ineffective. It also had its effect, though not distinct. The speed of the above process is slow as compared with that of the visual sense. This is recognized as manda-krama. The same is the case with other senses recognising the object after contact.
1. Višesā, G. 149 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.