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Epistemology of Jainas
successive psychical appearances. Liberation means the dis.. continuation of that stream. 1 Nirvāna, as they recognize the liberation, is an extinction. According to Jainism moksa or liberation means freedom from the bondage of karmic matter. The person, who, once breaks the contact with karmic matter, is not associated with it again. This state is attained througii gradual progress attained by samvara and nirjarā.? The liberated souls attain four perfections which were lying suppressed so far. The nature of Consciousness (Caitanya)
According to Jainism consciousness is the very nature of the self, continued in every state under liberation of bondage. It is found in the lowest stage of the psychical evolution as that of Nigoda as well as in the omniscient. It is preseni in sleep3 also; otherwise the pleasing experience of sound and comfortable sleep, in the subsequent waking state, cannot be felt. This conception is based on the logic that the soul and non-soul are fundamentally different. They cannot be interchanged. If the soul, at a certain moment, has no consciousness, it would become non-soul; which is against the fundamental conception of dualism. Moreover, the object, once without consciousness cannot possess it, as it is in the case of matter.
The consciousness though rot generated quite a new, is open to change and gradation. It is not an unchangeable eternity like cit of the Sänkhya and the Vedānta. The Jaina differs from Buddhism also, which does not hold the factor of continuity in the successive conscious phenomena, The Jainas hold that consciousness is not merely a chain of successive momentary fiashes but a constant factor undergoing various changes. It is a permanent faculty with various manifestation.
have clearly discarded
Pure Consciousness and Jainism
In the logical period the Jainism 1. Ašvaghosa 2. Tattvärtha 10.2 3, Tattvārthaślokavārtika. p. 49
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