Jain Journal 1976 10

SR No.: 520044
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 44
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 27

OCTOBER, 1976
nirvana may not be devoid of existence; but with regard to a being in such a state also, the question of omniscience does not arise. For, according to the Buddhists, tanha is at the root of all knowledge; owing to tanhã, momentary apprehensions regarding momentary objects arise every moment. This series of momentary apprehensions (santāna) stops absolutely when nirvana is attained at the annihilation of vāsanā, --so that it is not possible for a Jiva who has attained the nirvāņa to have omniscience or knowledge of all or any of the objects of the world.
The Liberated State and Omniscience: The Nyaya and the Vaiseşika Views
Just as omniscience is impossible in a being who has entered the state, called the nirvana by the Buddhist, it is impossible in a similar way in a soul which has attained absolute liberation, called apavarga by the Naiyayikas. According to Gautama, desire, aversion, effort, pleasure, pain and knowledge are the attributes or peculiar characteristics of a soul; some add three other attributes to this list. In any case the theory of the Nyaya philosophy is that when apavarga or final emancipation is attained, all those attributes or characteristics of the soul leave it absolutely.
tadivam dhişanādīnām navānāmapi mülatah guṇamātmāno dhamsah so'pavargah pratisthitah
In a Jiva which has attained apavarga, jñāna or consciousness is absurd just like its other attributes, so that when one thinks that the state of liberation, as conceived by Gautama, is not unlike the absolutely passive and unconscious state of a stone;
muktaye yan silatvāya sastramüce sacitasam
65
atyanta-nāśe muktih......
he is not probably wrong.
According to the Vaisesikas also, the soul is in the state of liberation, when on the annihilation all its attributes, e.g., consciousness, etc; it exists like the expanse of sky.
guna-samgaterya
-Naişadhiya-Caritam, 17/75
sthitirnabhvaet kaṇāda-pakşe
-Samkşepa-Samkara-Vijayah, 16/69