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METAPHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
and bliss. The concept of omniscience presents a cognitive as well as an ethical ideal which appeals to imaginative person. The only question is, whether or not, it is possible, The Jainas, no doubt, regard it not only possible, ie., achievable, but as an ideal actually achieved by many prophets. The soul as the substratum of consciousness is the basis of knowledge. When the soul is in pure state. i.e., there are no obstructions, omniscience is inevitable. The soul in the pure state is omniscient. It seems to me that we may question about the achievability of the ideal but we have to accept it to be logically possible. Even a materialist can accept it as an ideal without introducing any contradiction in his materialistic system. The only thing to whom a materialist is com mitted is that consciousness originates from matter, i.e, it is not a basic reality as matter is. But after saying that, the materialist can go on to say that though consciousness is resultant or emergent of matter, yet it can develop to any extent i.e, even to the extent of omniscience. Omniscience has nothing to do with the origin of consciousness; rather it represents what consciousness could ultimately be, i.e., it is the culmination of consciousness and is not logically connected with how consciousness comes into being.
It is true that Jainism is the strongest exponent of the theory of omniscience, it does regard consciousness to be the essential nature of self. But even a system like the NyāyaVaišeşika, which regards consciousness as the adventitious quality of the soul can also accept omniscience as the ideal of all-knowledge. There is no inconsistency in saying that the self acquires consciousness under certain conditions and then develops into omniscience. These two theories i.e., materialism and the theory of consciousness as an adventitious attributes of the self, are not sufficient to refute omniscience.
The Nyāya-Vajśeşikas do accept that there are omniscient yogis who have acquired omniscience through yogic exercises and yogic-perception, though consciousness is, for it, an adventitious attribute. However, the Nyāya could not pro tect
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