Tattvartha Sutra

SR No.: 006796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sukhlal Sanghavi, K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 596
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Tattvartha Sutra, & Tattvarth
File Size: 10 MB

Page 212

CHAPTER ONE
jñāna. However, even while mati-jñāna is a cause of śruta-jñāna it is only an external such cause; as for the internal cause of śruta-jñāna it is nothing save the subsidence-cum-destruction of the concerned śrutajñānavaranīya karma. For even when matijñāna has taken place in relation to some object there will be no śruta-jñāna in relation to it in case there has been no subsidencecum-destruction of the concerned śrutajñanavaraniya karma.
Question : As in the production of mati-jñāna so also in that of śruta-jñāna the assistance of the sense-organs and manas is needed; wherein then does lie the distinction between the two ? So long as this distinction is not made clear it does not make much sense to say that śruta-jñāna is invariably preceded by matijñāna. This distinction is not made better understood even by the statement that the cause of mati-jñāna is the subsidence-cumdestruction of the mati-jñānāvaranīya karma while that of śrutajñāna the subsidence-cum-destruction of śruta-jñānāvaraṇīya karma, for the concept of subsidence-cum-destruction is not comprehensible to common sense.
Answer : Mati-jñāna has for its object something that exists at present time while śruta-jñāna has for its object something that exists at any of the three periods of time present, past, future. Apart from this distinction that has to do with their respective objects another one is that there is an employment of words in śruta-jñāna while there is no such employment in matijñāna. So by way of final definition we might say that, that cognition born of the sense-organs and manas which is accompanied by an employment of words! is śruta-jñāna while the same which is not so accompanied is mati-jñāna.
1. 'Being accompanied by an employment of words' means being in practice produced as a result of grasping the connotative potency of the words concerned. That is to say, while at the time of the production of śrutajñāna it is required that the conventional meaning of the words concerned be remembered and the text concerned that is heard be followed at the time of the production of the forms of matijñāna, īhā etc. nothing like that is required.