Jain Journal 1990 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 21

Omniscient Beings
HARISATYA BHATTACHARYYA
To have an idea of the omniscient beings, as the Jainas understand them, a study of the nature of omniscience and omniscient beings, as conceived in the Indian non-Jaina systems of philosophy may serve as an illuminating preliminary.
The Liberated State and Omniscience : The Buddhist View
Save and except the Mimamsa, the Vedic systems of philosophy mostly admit that there is a God, on whose will and intelligent efforts depend the creation, the preservation and the annihilation of the world and in whatever manner he may be called--the Pradhana, the Isvara, the Saguna-Brahma as the Purana Purusa-,God is omniscient. The Jaina's do not admit the existence of an architect God and so the question of divine omniscience does not arise with them. So far as the doctrine of God's omniscience is concerned, the Buddhist position is similar to that of the Jaina's. The Buddhists also do not believe in the existence of God. Therefore, the problem boils itself down to this : Either the finite beings are capable of attaining omniscience or omniscience is an impossibility. Now, with regard to the problem of omniscience in finite beings, the Buddhist attitude may be indicated in the following manner.
That the mundane unliberated souls are not omniscient is admitted not only by the Mimamsaka's but by all the philosophers. The fact is a matter of observation and not denied by the Buddhist. The liberated souls are, in the language of the Buddhist, nirvanatā-gata i.e. in the state of nirvana. Scholars have differed regarding the meaning of nirvana but with respect to omniscience in the liberated the difference is of no effect. For, if ‘nirvāṇa' means extinction like that of the light of an extinguished lamp, then a jiva is no more alive when it enters the nirvana so that it is quite meaningless to talk of it then as omniscient. If on the other hand, nirvana means a state (saranam, parāyanam or aksaram) which is everlasting (anantam, acyūtam, asamkhyatam, or anuttaram) and which has been described in the sacred books of the Buddhists as blessed and true (khimam, śivam, saccam, kevalam, padam) then a being in nirvāna may not be devoid of existence; but with regard to a being in