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Epistemology of Jainas
pleasure and pain, the other is subject to all transient passions. Almost every attribute that can be predicated to one is necessarily denied to the other. Knowledge, Will and Volitions are the only factors on which both are classed as soul. In this respect also the difference is not insignificant. The qualities of God differ from the soul fundamentally. In the case of God they are eternal while in the ordinary souls they are evanescent. The theory of contact, which is the essence of the Nyaya conception of knowledge, does not apply to God. Unlike the common souls, His knowledge is self-cognitive.
The Jainism does not recognize any qualitative difference between the bound and the liberated souls. In the first case the same qualities are limited on account of the karmic veil, in the latter case they are fully developed.
Absence of Consciousness in the state of libeation
The third difference between the two systems is this, that the Nyaya holds that there is no consciousness in the state of liberation.1 According to Jainism the self attains perfect consciousness in that state. This difference owes its existence to the positions assigned to conscionsness. According to the Nyaya it is an adventitious phenomenon. An adventitious phenomenon cannot occur when its cause is absent. In the state of liberation which is a permanent and pure state without any possibility of returning back, the causes that produce knowledge are no more possible. The liberated souls do not possess the body any more and without body the contact with mind is not possible. Consequently, there is no knowledge. The Jainas hold consciousness as a natural state. By nature, every self is omniscient. That nature lies dormant as long as the karmic obscurance exists. As soon as the karmic veil disappears the soul comes into its full bloom of perfect knowledge. The Jaina contends, if there is no consciousness in the state of liberation, nobody
1. Prasastapādabhāṣya 281; Nyāyakandali
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