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Indirect Knowledge
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the stage of judgement. We cannot make the cognition of first particularity an exception to this rule. If Avagraha is admitted as cognition of first particularity it also must be preceded by doubt and speculation (Ibā). These points will be discussed further as we proceed.
The second view dominates the Ägamic literature. Umāsvāti, Siddhasena Gapin and Jinabhadra support it. The examples of a sleeping man and the earthen pot fresh from the oven, as expressed in the Nandi, support the same. According to this view Avagraha is the first awareness of external existence, without any distinction of sound, colour etc. All particulars in this stage lie unmanifest. The first stage towards the realization of particularity begins with ībā.
The process of cognition as admitted by the above mentioned two views can be placed as follows :
1. Contact - Darśana - Avagraha-Ihā etc. 2. Darśana --contact--Avagraha-Ihā etc.
According to the second view contact is a stage of avagraha, known as vyañjanāvagraha. Vyañjanā vagraha (The contact between senses and the object)
Avagraha is divided in two stages of Vyañjanāvagraha and Arthāvagraha.
Vyañjanāvagraha means the contact between senses and the object leading to the manifestation of the latter. By senses we mean here the internal physical senses (antarpirvṛtti), which possess the power of cognition. The term Vyañjanā has three meanings : The senses, the object to be cognized and the contact between the two. The third is known as Vyañjanāvagraha.
It can be objected here that the contact is not knowledge, it is a physical relation. It exists between sound and the auditory sense of a deaf also, who is decidedly without any knowledge.
Jinabhadra replies to this objection that Vyañjapāvgaraba is not absolutely without knowledge as it supplies matter to 1. Jäānabindu p. 10
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