________________
Notes
101
account the past, the present and the future and the fourth is the right knowledge. The beings possessed of these saññās are relatively called saññis in comparison to those possessed of the lower type or types of saññās. The omniscient are beyond any sanjñā, because they are free from all functioning of matijñāna.
P.7.L.11-14. Objectively speaking, Jaina scriptures are right whereas non-Jaina scriptures as well as books on secular subjects are wrong, but subjectively speaking, a person with right attitude can get benefit out of wrong scriptures whereas another person with perverted attitude may draw wrong conclusions from the right type of books al:o. Thus, from the pragmatic point of view, it is the attitude of the knower and not the nature of the knowledge, which makes the knowledge right or wrong. Cf. Nandisütra, 41.
P. 7 L.14-19. It is a common practice amongst the Jainas to analyse things from the four-fold points of view of substance territory, period and the essence. From the point of view of substance, śruta (which in the present context means right knowledge and not verbal thinking) has a beginning and also an end with reference to a particular individual. It has a beginning when an individual ascends the fourth stage of spiritual development viz. samyagdr ti gunasthana. It has an end when the individual either reverts back to the first stage viz. mithyādīstigunasthāna or attains omniscience, which is beyond śruta. With reference to different individuals, it has neither beginning nor end; because persons, possessed of right knowledge, always exist.
From the point of view of territory, it has a beginning and an end in the territories of Bharata and Airāvala, where it appears at the time of first Tirthankara and disappears at the end of the Tirtha of the last Tirthankara. It has neither a beginning nor an end in the territory of mahāvideha, where it is always present, because it is believed that right knowledge never disappears in that territory.
From the point of view of period, it has a beginning and an end in the Bharata and Airāvata territories, as it appears in the third time-period of the ascending and descending ages and disappears in the beginning of the fourth time-period of
va Bharari
Institur
