Outlines of Jainism

SR No.: 007012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 216
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 100

MIND
tion that the Jainas have taken pains to make between the mind and self is not agreed to by certain other Indian thinkers (in addition to the Buddhists). They consider the distinction unnecessary on the ground that in contradistinction to the sense organs: (i) the mind as also the self are capable of unlimited range of perception of the outside world (ii) the mind, just as the self does not experience any limitation of its 'occasion for co-operation' by contact with the particular object inasmuch as it underlies all the conscious and perceptive processes.
The Jainas were able to maintain the distinction by considering two types of mind, the physical and the psychical, the dravya-manas and the bhava-manas. The former is subtle matter transformed into mind and hence is also referred to as the material mind. The Višeṣāvas yaka-bhāṣya considers the material mind to be composed of an infinite number of fine and coherent particles of matter meant for the function of the mind. There is also the description of the material mind as a collection of fine particles which are meant for exciting thought-processes due to the yoga arising out of the contact of the jiva with the body.12
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The psychical mind stands for the mental functions proper. The Jainas firmly believed that unless the karmas responsible for obscuring the self from attaining knowledge were annihilated, no knowledge would be possible. The annihilation of the knowledgeobscuring karmas and the consequent preparation for the mind's receptivity is the function referred to as labdhi. In addition to this, however, there is required the positive modification of the self into the conscious mental activity. It is obvious, these two represent the two aspects of the mind which cannot too rigidly be distinguished. That these two represent the two reciprocal aspects of one and the same function if we may characterize the activity of the mind in this way is clearly brought out by Bhattacharya when he writes: "Internal conscious processes, e.g., comparison, conception, etc. are impossible unless and until the conscious principle, the soul is possessed of labdhi, i.e., the power of comparing, conceiving, etc. These internal processes are impossible again, unless and until there is upayoga, unless and until, that is to say, there is some subjective effort (attention) to carry on these mental
13
processes.
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12 Viseṣāvasyaka-bhāṣya, 3525
13 See H.S. Bhattacharya, op. cit., pp. 243-244