Jain Journal 1990 07

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

Page 22

JULY, 1990
17
such a state also, the question of omniscience does not arise. For, according to the Buddhists, tanhā is at the root of all knowledge ; owing to tanhã and the vāsanā, momentary apprehensions regar momentary objects arise every moment. This series of momentary apprehensions (santāna) stops absolutely when nirvana is attained at the annihilation of vāsanā,--so that it is not possible for a jiva who has attained the nirvāna to have omniscience or knowledge of all or any of the objects of the world.
The Liberated State and Omniscience: The Nyāya and the Vaiśēşika Views
Just as omniscience is impossible in a being who has entered the state, called the nirvana by the Buddhist, it is impossible in a similar way in a soul which has attained absolute liberation, called apavarga by the Naiyayikas. According to Gautama, desire, aversion, effort, pleasure, pain and knowledge are the attributes or peculiar characteristics of a soul ; some add three other attributes to this list. In any case, the theory of the Nyaya philosophy is that when apavarga or final emancipation is attained, all those attributes or characteristics of the soul leave it absolutely.
tadi vam dhişanādinām navānămapi mulatah gunamātmano dhamsah sohpavargah pratişthitah
In a jiva which has attained apavarga, jñāna or consciousness is absurd just like its other attributes, so that when one thinks that the state of liberation, as conceived by Gautama, is not unlike the absolutely passive and unconscious state of a stone.
muktaye yah silatvāya sastramũce sacitasam
-Naişadhi ya-Caritam, 17/75
he is not probably wrong.
According to the Vaisesikas also, the soul is in the state of liberation, when on the annihilation of all its attributes e.g. consciousness etc; it exists like the expanse of sky.
atyanta-năśē guņa-samgateryā sthitirnabhovat kanabhakşa-pakse muktih...
-Samk sepa-Samkara-Vijayah, 16/69