From IIM Ahmedabad To Happiness

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Page 82

FROM IIM-AHMEDABAD TO HAPPINESS
much beyond what we normally get through education and our experiences.
According to the scriptures, knowledge is of five kinds. It may be pointed out here that we have no option but to turn to the wisdom of the ancients on this important subject as the muchboasted knowledge of the moderns is a mere smattering. मतिश्रुतावधिमन:पर्ययकेवलानि ज्ञानम् ॥
- Achārya Umāswami, Tattvārthādhigama Sūtra Knowledge is of five kinds - sensory knowledge, scriptural knowledge, clairvoyance, telepathy and omniscience.
That which knows its objects through the senses and the mind is sensory knowledge. Through our senses and mind we get knowledge in four stages - appreciation, speculation, perceptual judgment and retention. Sensory knowledge is what we generally refer to as intelligence and includes remembrance, recognition and inductive as well as deductive reasoning.
Owing to the destruction-cum-subsidence of the knowledgeobstructing karmas, that which hears, or that through which ascertained objects are heard, or hearing alone is scriptural knowledge. Scriptural knowledge is acquired through the faculty of mind. Scriptural knowledge is preceded by sensory knowledge. While sensory knowledge acquaints us with the object of knowing, scriptural knowledge provides us its description.
The next three kinds of knowledge are direct knowledge as they do not depend on our senses or mind.
The capacity of clairvoyance ascertains matter in downward range or knows objects within limits. Clairvoyance knowledge enables a person to know things or objects even at a distance of time or space, without their coming into the effective range of the sense organs. Clairvoyance, thus, includes the knowledge of some of the past lives of the soul.
70