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SOME POSITIVE JAINA ARGUMENTS..
subtle sounds, but not in apprehending colour and other things.” 156 To say that this is possible would be to commit category-mistake. Similarly, when one has learnt Grammar, his intelligence may go very far in that field but not in the field of astronomy. 157
In reply to these criticisms of the Mimāṁsakas, the Jainas point out that some of the instances given, however, are very much crude, though they are suggestive. Anantakirti'88 exemplifying the cases of extraordinary development in sense perception says that a vulture, a boar and an ant have got tremendously superior power of visual, auditory and olfactory perceptions. This is also not impossible for human beings. Replying to the charge of the Mimāṁsakas that there is a limit to the progressive development of our knowledge, Akalarka159 says that this is also based on faise experience. For instance, we cannot jump even eight miles in the sky but there are birds, namely garuda which can fly hundreds of miles high in the sky. Therefore, knowledge and power can be increased in proportion to the removal of obstructions, and that of its obstructive veils in case of the soul. Vidyānanda 160 also gives many instances of this type.
The argument of the Mimāṁsakas that one can never comprehend things beyond the senses is wrong, because the statement "sense-perception is limited ” could be made only by him who had the direct apprehension of the sense-capacity of all beings. If one declares it on the basis of his own in.
156 śāntarakṣita, Ibid., 3162–3163. 157 Ibid., 3164-3167. 158 Anantakirti, Brhat-sarva jña-siddhi, p. 131. 159 Akalarka, Siddhi-viniscaya, VIII. 12. 160 Vidyānanda, Tattvārtha-śloka-vārttikam, I. 29, 36-38. He mentions
many instances : a type of serpent which can jump very high; the flames of fire which goes high up to the sky; heavy stones if pelted can reach downwards, millions and millions of miles; the wind does blow throughout the length and breadth of the universe.
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