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The third stage of manana in this scheme means reflecting over what one has heard from the mouth of teacher. Then in reflection, the spiritual practitioner employs all the pramāņas (means of cognition or knowledge -- namely sense perception, memory, recognition, cogitation and inference) without knowing which pramāṇa he is employing or the nature of that pramāṇa. This shows that manana, in the scheme of four stages for self-realization, includes all the pramāņas. When you are pondering over or examining something, you employ all the ramāņas from sense perception to inference.
This explanation poses another question: when mutually opposed cognitions (memory, recognition, cogitation and inference) are brought under one head of mati-A, then what prevented Jaina thinkers from including śruta (verbal testimony) in the concept of mati? In the original scheme of darśana, śravaṇa, manana, and nidhidhyasana, the śravana stage necessarily precedes manana. It is because all these means of knowledge are employed by a person conducting manana (thinking over), after hearing what his teacher has said (śravana). Therefore, śravana is to be separately mentioned in that scheme as the preceding stage. Śravaṇa and manana are replaced by śruta and mati respectively in the classification of five jñānas. The necessity of a separate stage of śravaṇa preceding the stage of manana compelled the Jaina theoreticians to formulate their theory of five forms of knowledge to keep śrutajñāna separate from matijñāna.
Originating Instrument of Mati
tad indriya-anindriya-nimittam (TAS 1.14)
That [mati-A] is caused by sense organs and non-sense organ [i.e. mind].
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