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 346

Direct Knowledge
321
(merit) etc; still, they differ in their omniscience. The omniscience of yogins is produced by meditation, while divine omniscience is eternal. Moreover, the divine perception of dharma (Moral law) is oatural (samsiddhika), dharma constitutes the essential wature of God, who is the author of Vedic injunctions. But, yogips learn the real nature of dharma, first indirectly through the Vedic injunctions, and then have an intuition through long meditation. When they attain the stage of direct intuition the dependence on Vedic texts is finished. They become themselves an authority. Just as in the case of inference, when we perceive the same fire as was inferred before, the dependence on the mark is finished.
The Jainas do not recognise the above two types. They do not admit the conception of God. Every cognition, according to them, has a beginning. They classify the supernatural cognitions, on the besis of their gradation. The knowledge of an omniscient, though attained at the destruction of entire obscurance through the self-disciple and penance, does not disappear. It is eternal and constant. But, the supernormal knowledge of lower type is open to disappearance as well as further development, resulting into the stage of omniscience. It is not constant and functions only when the attention is applied. The Division of Yogipratyakşa
Prasastapāda' divides yogic perception into two types of (1) Yuktapratyakşa-the perception of those who are in ecstasy and (2) Viyuktapratyaksa--the perception of those who are not in ecstasy.
Those with ecstasy can perceive their own souls, the souls of others, space, time, atoms, air, manas, qualities ( gunas ) movements (karmans), universalities (sāmānya) and particularties (višesa), inherence (samavāya) through the mapas strengthened by the powers attained through maditation. And those without ecstasy perceive subile, hidden and remote things, 1. Prasastapāda Bbāsya p. 97