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 284

Indirect Knowledge
259
niśrita and Aśruta-niśrita was introduced by the author of Nandi. If this division is not taken into consideration Mati is directly divided into the four varieties of Avagraha, Ïhā, Avāya and Dhāraņā. This division is common with the Svetāmbaras as well as Digambaras. It is found in all the cononical and latter literature. It expresses the psychological process of knowing as admitted by the Jainas.
Knowledge, in the ordinary sense of the term, is judgement, But, a judgement is not reached at once. One has to pass through certain stages before reaching it. The philosophical systems have explained these stages in various ways.
The Nyāya admits four stages in the following order :(1) Contact between the organ of sense and the object. (2) The cognitions of the object and its characteristic with
out relation (višistavaisistyānavagāhi jñānam). (3) Coguition of the two as related with each other. (4) The desirable, undesirable or indifferent attitude to
wards the object. Prabhākara and Kumārila endorse the Nyāya view with a slight change in the second stage, which we shall point out in the chapter of Darśana.
The Sankhya explains these stages as follows :(1) Contact (2) Outgoing of buddhi at the spot of the object. (3) Reflection of the object into buddhi. (4) Reflection of puruşa into buddhi or that of buddhi into
puruṣa; the conceptions held by Vācaspati and Vijñāna.
bhikṣu respectively. The Vedānta holds the following process? :(1) Contact (2) Outgoing of Antahkaraņa at the spot of object. (3) The removal of ignorance obscuring the consciousness
conditioned by the object.