Gems of Jainism

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

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Gems of Jainism
Thus we find that the Jainas reject the Nyaya Vaisesika theory that knowledge reveals only external relations but not itself.
5. Keval jnāna or "omniscience is not only the culmination of our cognitive faculties, it is also the final consummation of our moral, religious and spiritual life."18 In Jainism we find an intimate relation between the state of salvation and omniscience. The perfect being is also the possesser of perfect knowledge. The state of kevali is reached through the progressive development of the self which leads to the annihilation of various obstructions of knowledge. Like almost all the systems of Indian philosophy, “Jainism also tries to link the concept of omniscience with the highest of religious and spiritual life."19 The concept of omniscience, does involve difficulties. . But then Jainism believes in and accepts the fact that omniscience
is possible. The Jaina thinkers have discussed and proved the existence of omniscience through number of arguments. The chief one follows “from the necessity of the final consummation to the progressive development of cognition."20
"Ominiscience in Jainism is not only the perfection of the cognitive faculty of the self but also its ultimate end. It is the spiritual state of eternal bliss and also the culmination of religious aspiration. This state can be compared with the Jivan-mukti of Samkhya and Vedanta, with the Turiyavasthā” of, Brahmananda.”21
6. No soul of living being can be totally devoid of or bereft of mati jnāna and sruta jnāna. Knowledge according to Jain theory is always appropriated by the self. Often a question has been put before the Jaina scholars: How consciousness can reveal the nature of unconscious object. This question has been dismissed as an absurd one because according to Jaina theory of knowledge it is the very nature of knowledge to reveal objects.
7. In case of self consciousness the subject of knowledge (Jnānin), the object of knowledge (Jnéya) and knowledge itself are different aspects of a single concrete unity. “In perfect condition, according to Jain theory of knowledge, the soul is pure Ināna and Darsana."22