tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 330

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
298
Ātmap and Moksa
the abode of the knowledge because it is a material substance like a pot, cloth, etc. Knowledge cannot belong to the sense as the latter is an instrument like an axe. Had the sense been the abode of knowledge there could not be any recollection of things which were experienced by the sense before it was destroyed. If knowledge were a quality of the mind many perceptions could be simultaneous. But this is impossible. Hence, the abode of knowledge is not the mind, but it is the soul which is permanent so that it can perceive a thing now as well as remember one perceived in the past."! Thus, if knowledge belonged to the sense organs knowledge will be transient and it would cease to exist when the sense organs would stop working and recollection of past events would be impossible and in that case knowledge would not be acquired by those who are deficient in the powers of sense organs, so that deaf and blind persons would not understand anything. But it is contrary to facts. Knowledge would suffer from deformities in the events of deformities of the senses. Moreover, sense perceptions are momentory and fleeting; knowledge also would not be permanent if it resided in the sense organs. For such reasons it has to be admitted that knowledge cannot be located even in the sense organs though they act as the most essential and indispensable instruments for the acquisition of knowledge by directly fetching impressions of the objects of the external world.
1 Vidyabhushana S. C. (Tr.) : Nyāya Sūtras of Gotama. See Com. on Sūtra 117.
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