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I am the Soul
635 substance. Therefore, it happens. Similarly, even in kevaljnana, all the dravya-paryayas of the world get reflected, yet the atma is not concerned. It does not want to see. It is only engrossed in its own brilliance.
It is like switching on a light in a room for picking up a thing. It simultaneously lights up hundred other things in the room and they become visible. Atma's tremendous effort is only towards attaining the complete realisation of the own true form, and kevaljnana is incidentally attained in this direction. But in the kevaljnana, just as the atma is visible, all other things also become visible. The kevali supreme soul has no concern for them.
The other meaning of kevaljnana is but one knowledge. Where there is but one knowledge that is kevaljnana. The Shastras do mention mati, shruta, avadhi, manahparyava and keval as the five jnanas. But the other four get merged with kevaljnana. They do retain a separate identity. Kevaljnana is above all and complete. Other jnanas are incomplete, so they do not remain separate from kevaljnana.
If your son has qualified as an M.Sc., you do not go about saying, "My son has done his matriculation, then his B.Sc. and now his M.Sc.', for when M.Sc. is mentioned, all the others are implied. It is evident that only after qualifying in all these, the boy would have reached the M.Sc., not otherwise. Likewise, in kevaljnana, the other four jnanas are absorbed.
The first meaning was from the practical view. But what does the kevali parmatma gain from it? He does not get anything from looking at the world. The common people might perhaps seek joy out of looking and knowing the world. They may even be able to gain some material benefit from it. But the kevali parmatma does not want anything out of this. That is why Srimadji now presents the specific definition of kevaljnana -
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