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120
THE ESSENCE OF JAINA SCRIPTURES
whole of it, then how can it make the whole milk appear
blue?
The main purpose of this example is to prove that consciousness (samvedana), which, because it is not separated from the self, constantly receives its inherent character in its function of agent or instrument. In other words, in its character of knowledge, consciousness pervades all the knowable appearances (as effects) of all the objects (as causes). Thus, when one metaphorically remarks that by reason of their relation of cause and effect, that "knowledge, dominating or pervading the objects, abides (in them)," there is no contradiction (PS 30 AC, see also PS 35 AC).
In the earlier two verses, Kundakunda states in clear terms:
The Knower possesses knowledge as his innate nature; the objects, surely, possess the character of knowables with regard to the knower, like shapes or forms with reference to the eye. But they do not abide in each other (PS 28).
The Knower, neither entering nor shunning to enter the knowables, verily, in consequence of his surpassing the sense-organs, knows and sees the whole world, as the eye knows and sees the shapes or forms, i.e. the objects of sight (PS 29).
Explaining these verses in detail, Amrtachandra observes:
The Knower and the objects, owing to their separateness (prthakatva), which forms their individual-nature (sva-lakshan), do not possess occurrence within each other; but they merely possess a mutually related occurrence, effected by the relation between their innate natures as knowledge and knowable. For instance, as the eyes and the things having shapes or forms, which are their objects are respectively ready to receive and to occasion the appearances of the knowables, even without mutual penetration, so the self and the objects are ready to receive and to occasion the appearances of all knowables, without being identical with one another (PS 28 AC).
Just as the eyes, not entering, i.e. not taking hold of shapes or forms of the substances with its own spacio-infinitesimal-constituents (pradeshas), nor shunning to enter them, i.e. really appropriating their distinguishable appearances, knows and sees, likewise the soul - of which, since it surpasses the sense-organs, we need not doubt at all that it acts independently of approach - not entering, i.e. not taking hold, with its own pradeshas, of all the things which function as knowables, nor shunning to enter them, i.e. as it were uprooting and then devouring all the knowable appearances which abide in the things, with the aid of the manifoldness of its efficacy,
