Aapta Mimansa

Author(s): Saratchandra Ghoshal
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 41

CHAPTER I
39
“Every soul is potentially omniscient, in the fullest sense of the term. Consciousness being the very nature of the soul, and all things being knowable by nature, perfection in knowledge must be predicated in respect of the essential nature of each and every individual. Ready assent will be lent to this proposition by any one who will recognise the fact that all things in nature are knowable, which means, not that there is nothing unknown to us today, but that which will never be known by any one at all is non-existent; for that which will never be known to any one will never be known, much less proved to be existing, and without strict proof, existence cannot be conceded in favour of anything whatsoever. It is not even permissible to hold that the ‘unknowble' might mean an agglomeration of a certain indefinite number of attributes some of which may never be known, for we shall never have any reason whatsoever for alleging the existence of any of those unknowable attributes beyond a wilful refusal to be reasonable. Thus there is no escape from the position that all things are knowable.
“Now since the natural properties of a substance are to be found in all its units or individuals, it is obvious that what is known to one individual is capable of being known by all others. It follows from this that if there be an infinity of ideas, each of which is known to only one individual at a time, the consciousness of each and every soul is potentially able to know the whole infinity of them. Hence, each and every soul is potentially omniscient, that is to say, the consciousness of every living being is endowed with the capacity to know all things, unlimited by time or space. There is nothing to be surprised at in this conclusion, since knowledge merely means a state of conciousness, which being an affection or modification of the substance of its being, is felt by the soul. This amounts to saying that the soul is made of pure intelligence, in different language the jiva is a pure embodiment of knowledge.
“The soul is also endowed with faculties of