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THE MEANING OF OMNISCIENCE
can also be fruitfully applied to the notion of omniscience, I do not claim that what I am going to present offers a complete analysis but it certainly would exhibit the logically possible ways of interpreting omniscience in seven ways.
For the sake of convenience, I shall start with the last of the seven nayas - Evambhūta and end with Naigama, the first, in order to show that each preceding stand-point is subtler and more specialised than the succeeding one.
To start with the grammarians, they reach the climax when they identify reality with a highly specialised form of the verbal method lile the sixth kind or such-like-root of the various speech-forms used in the expression of an object. However, only one is designated by the term in question, while an altogether different attitude must be designated by a different term under different conditions. It is even more rigorous than the etymological viewpoint in that it treats the different attitudes of the object denoted by different designations as numerically different entitles. Now, the term 'sarvajña' will here signify a specialised meaning desirable from its etymology, and will then mean, " true in its entirety to the word and sense. 28 This means that an object denoted by a particular word is recognised only when the object is in the actual state of performing its own natural function as suggested by the derivative meaning of that word, because if a thing be really recognised even when it does not fulfil its function, then cloth can also be called a jar and so on. 27
26 Vinays-Vijaya, Naya Karnika ed., M. D. Desai (Bombay, Jaina Śvetambara Conference, 1915), p. 54, See, N. M. Tatia, Nayas, ways of Approach & Observation (Bangalore, Jaina Mission Society, N. D.) p. 9. Also see Y. J. Padmarajiah's A Comparative study of the Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge. (Jaina Sahitya Vikas Mandal, Bombay, 1963), p. 324.
27 Ibid. Verse 18. This is the approach of Evambhūta Naya. We have discussed the derivation of Sarvajña from the root jña' (Aşṭadhyayi of Panini. III. 2.3).
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