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Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
6. The sixth sense character of mind has been repudiated by its dissimilarity with the senses. It has indefinite objects and location in the body with respect to space and time in contrast with the sense organs. capacity about the physical and non-physical objects. The senses are limited to physical objects only. Its instrumentality can also not prove its sense character as it is an inconclusive reason. The smoke etc. are not senses, still they lead to the knowledge of fire etc. However, the mind may be called a quasi-sense rather than full sense as the senses work through it. It may also be called an internal sense (Antahkarana). It can judge about good and bad. 7. The senses are represented by different sense organs. Quite often, the senses and sense organs are taken as synonymous. Besides sense of touch (which has a variety of shapes and sizes), each sense has its specific shape and
e. The shapes given here are as per Dhavala-1 (P. 286). However, different sizes are mentioned in Gommatsara, 172 (P. 304). SNo Sense Organ
Shape 1. Sense of taste
tongue
hoof/half moon 2. Sense of smell nose
kadamba or til
flower 3. Sense of sight eye
lentit Sense of hearing ear
barley-tube 5. Sense of touch skin
varied shapes It is recognised that lower senses precede the higher senses. 9. All the senses/sensations are assumed to be destruction-cumsubsidentially pervasive throughout the body as the touch organ of skin etc. That is why, the current experiments show many sensations from all par body. The one-sensed beings also experience all types of sensations through their skin only as pointed out in Dhavla-1 verse 135 P. 241. The serious meditating persons also have varied sensations from all parts of their bodies. It is surprising that the Jaina seers were aware of this fact. However, in general,
es function only through that part of the body only which has special external structures corresponding to them.
These senses get the enjoyer soul towards the desirable and undesirable subjects and objects. They have been said to be five due to their specific capacities. The next aphorism indicates their subclassification :
Dvividhāni 2.16 Each of the above five senses has two varieties :
The word 'vidha' here means kinds or varieties. Each of the above senses has two varieties- (i) physical sense and (ii) psychical sense.
The next aphorism is intended to describe the sub-classification of physical senses :
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