Gommatasara Jiva Kanda

Author(s): Nemichandra Siddhant Chakravarti, J L Jaini
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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has bred indifference amounting to ignorance in us. This psychic factory is within our own bodies.
Take an example :- 1. You are reading these words before your eyes, if you are dead and unconscious you can never read the words although they are before your eyes. There is no consciousness there. To be able to read you must have consciousness
If your thoughts are away, e.g. a siren song from your neighbour fascinates you and you are all ear to it. You cannot read these words, for your consciousness is not Attentive to the words. So attention is needed.
3. When your attention is drawn to the words in the first instance, there is merely a conation of them. You are merely conscious that something, not words, but merely something is there. This is conation (Darshana). This precedes knowledge. But it is most difficult to detect it or to describe it. It is itself an indescribable stage of consciousness touching a knowable object. It is merely a sort of is-ness of something of which your attentive consciousness is aware. It is not knowledge; nor even the beginning of knowledge. It is merely a preliminary, but a necessary prelimi. nary, to knowledge.
4. After this conation by attentive consciousness, the consciousness is directed to know the thing. The first instant witnesses the Attention of the consciousness shifted from conation to knowled This attentiveness is the beginning of knowledge. After this, knowledge begins. These stages are exceedingly difficult to analyse. Very profound, patient and long practised self-analysis is needed to perfectly verify them. But they are there. They may be sensed satisfactorily by any one who gives sober, serious and staid thought to the grasping of them.
From being aware of the mere is-ness of something in the paper before you, you instantly are conscious that there are some sort of letters there. Your mind questions? What kind of letters ?
The next instant answers: letters of the English Alphabet. You impress this on your mind and record and retain it there for future use. This is useful to you on future occasions. You may remember it, you may recognise it by seeing these very words again or by seeing some others similar or dissimilar to them. You may collect together many records like this and build up an induction on the basis of them. From your induction you may deduce inferences.