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the sense organs. After retention of judgment; memory, comparison, logic or inference can occur serially and are the functions of mind. All these four steps after retention of judgment are also included in matijñāna.
Jain thinkers have defined touch or skin (sparśana), taste (rasanā), smell (ghrāna), form/ colour or eye (cakṣu) and hearing (śravana) as the five types of sense organs. Further they also consider mana / manas (mind) as no-indri (quasi sense) and the integrator of all the remaining five senses. Of these six senses, eyes and mind are not competent for contactawareness while the remaining four senses perceive the objects only on contact with them. Therefore contact awareness is possible through later four senses only while the objectawareness is possible through all the six senses. Matijñāna is preceded by visual intuition I caksu and / or non-visual intuition / acakşu-darśana.
Since all the senses and body are indicated as consisting of matter, matijñāna is limited to knowing concrete objects only, i.e. objects which can be cognized by the senses as they have attributes which are the subjects of the five senses. Non-concrete objects, like soul/self, ākāśa, dharma, adharma and kāla are not the subjects of matijñāna. Hence we see that the sphere of its cognition even though is very limited, yet it is of prime importance as it is the knowledge, which affects our daily life.
Stages of sensual perception discussed Let us take each stage of development of sensual perception at a time for brief discussion.
Avagraha: - Out linear-grasp. Apperception Avagraha is the general knowledge of an object when it is brought in contact with sense organs. It consists of two stages namely vyañjanāvagraha (contact-awareness) and arthāvagraha (object-perception / awareness). Contact-awareness is the relation of the physical sense organ with the subject transformed into its sense data such as sound-atoms. Object-perception on the other hand is the last stage of contact-perception and is an instantaneous flash. Initial bare contact of the sense organs take place at the moment it reaches the senses. This is the stage of contact awareness. This contact awareness gradually proceeds towards the plane of consciousness and is called object awareness. Bhadrabāhu II in Avaśyaka-niryukti defines avagraha as cognition of sense data. Further it is instantaneous, i.e. it lasts only for one instant that is infinitesimal (samaya) and beyond human conception. However it relates to object-perception and not to contact-awareness,
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0
| SR No. | 007712 |
| Book Title | ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | International School for Jain Studies |
| Publisher | International School for Jain Studies |
| Publication Year | 2012 |
| Total Pages | 404 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 13 MB |