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Knowledge - Jn na Dr. Shugan Chand Jain
Preamble
Oxford English dictionary defines knowledge as:
Expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; What is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or (iii) be absolutely certain or sure about something. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as 'justified true belief
iii.
There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes like perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning and used to develop better understanding a subject to use it for a specific purpose if appropriate.
Religious meaning of knowledge is:
Christianity: Knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Islam: The Knowing" (al-Al m) is one of the distinct attributes of God. The Quran asserts that knowledge comes from God and encourages the acquisition of knowledge.
Indian religions talk of two kinds of knowledge direct (paroksa) i.e. knowledge obtained from books, hearsay, etc. and indirect is the knowledge borne of direct experience, i.e., knowledge that one discovers for oneself.
Knowledge is the most discussed subject in Jaina canonical literature which consider knowledge in its totality i.e. source, types, use and method to attain it. Its importance is established by the fact that attaining omniscience is an essential pre-requisite to achieve emancipation (Mok a). Dhaval by Vra Sena Sv mi, Pravacanas ra by Kunda Kunda, Tattv rathasutra by Um Sv ti and commentaries on it by Um Sv ti, Piya P da, Akala ka and others plus a separate appendix prepared at Vallabhi v can called Nandi Sutra containing just knowledge are the important sources for understanding the Jain theory of knowledge.
Discussions of Knowledge in na) in Jainism
Knowledge is an attribute of the soul. In fact knowledge is said to be the nature of the soul as it is found only associated with the soul. In empirical soul, it decreases or increases as per the thickness of k rmika veil on it.
Let us look at the example of moon to understand the Jaina concept of knowledge and soul concomitance: We see full bright moon on the full moon night called Purnim. After that night we start seeing moon gradually becoming less visible due to its being obscured by the relevant position of sun/earth and moon itself as well as other obstructions like clouds, trees, hills etc, till on the no moon night called Am vasy we do not see the moon at all. This cycle does not mean that the light/ shining attribute of moon has gone but it simply gets obscured by impediments stated above. So as an example only: soul can be taken like moon and its attribute knowledge like brightness or light emitted by the moon.
Pure soul is perfect knowledge. There is never a moment when even the empirical soul, be it in any destiny or state is without a trace of knowledge otherwise it will become by definition a non-soul. The
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