Book Title: Jaina Concept of Omniscience
Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Previous | Next

Page 65
________________ 52 CLASSIFICATION AND CATEGORISATION doubt, true that it was the explicit aim of Jainism to rebel against the Upanisadic tradition, but it is wrong to think that the Jainas disagreed with everything in the Upanişads. This conception of the self knowledge as the knowledge of basic reality is one in which the Jainas are very close to the Upanişadic trend of thinking inspite of their disclaimer that they are opposed to the basic ideas of the Upanişadic philosophy metaphysics and theology. There is also another sense in which the Jainas use the term 'omniscience'. In this sense, it means the knowledge of the essential principles and not knowledge of concrete details. Ācārānga says, “He who knows one, knows all. ”19 This passage when read in the actual context refers to the knowledge of passions ( Kaşāyas ) which hinder right knowlege. The “ One ” referred to here, therefore, means knowledge of some essential moral principle. Pt. Sukhalālaji, who is one of the most important and modern exponents of this view of omniscience tries to interpret Mahāvīra's statement addressed to Jamāli in such a way that would give support to his position. Mahāvīra said to Jamāli that right-knowledge could be had only if things are known from the points of view of both substances and modes.20 Sukhalālaji reads into this utterance the view that only he is omniscient who adopts both these points of view. This statement, however, has to be distinguished from an analogous statement emphasising the knowledge of all substances and all modes. If omniscience means knowledge of all substances and all modes, then it becomes knowledge of all things and therefore this view of omniscience will be the same as the second view which Sukhalālaji does not accept. But Sukhalālají does not make it clear 19 20 Ācāranga Sutra, I. 3.4. Bhagavati Sūtra, IX. 6. “From the point of view of substance, the world is eternal; from the point of view of modes, it is non-eternal”. Rcal knowledge is knowledge of both substance and their modes and not of either substance alone or of modes alone. Cf. Syadvada Mañjari, K. 13-14; 16-19. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258