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Direct Knowledge
343 The avadhi of gods, hellish beings and Tirtharkaras is madhyagata; that of animals is antagata and that of humanbeings is not fixed. It varies according to ksayopasama. The avadhi of gods and hellish-beings lasts for the whole life; that of Tirtharkaras upto the attainment of kevalajñāna, that of others is uncertain. The area cognized by Avadhi?
The knowledge of common people is confined to the capacity of senses and the mind. The area of avadhi is ascertained from the point where the soul begins to function independently. The minimum and the maximum area cognised by it can be fixed by placing the sense.cognition on one side and. omniscience on the other. Avadhi with the minimum capacity apprehends the area, as little as the dimension of a panaka? in the third moment of its birth.2 The maximum area cognised. by avadhi is the entire universe and innumerable units of the same size beyond it. According to Jaina cosmology the whole universe is measured by fourteen Rajjus, a hypothetical scale: of innumerable yojanas. It is believed that the five substances: of Dharma, Adharma, Jiva, pudgala and kāla are found in this area of fourteen rajjus only. Beyond it there is only one substance, i. e. Ākāśa (space). Out of the six dravyas the pudgala is material while the other five are immaterial. Avadhi can know the material objects only. But, the question under discussion is the extension of space, where the object can be apprehended by the avadhi with maximum capacity. Jinabhadra holds that ayadhi can apprehend an area as much as is constituted by innumerable worlds of the dimension of fourteen. Rajjus. Though practically, avadhi does not know anything. beyond the universe, as there is no material to be apprehended, it is only the statement of capacity in respect of area. 1. Višesā veśyaka Bhās ya. 585-703; Malayagiri on Nandr, p. 97 2. Panaka is the shortest being of the vegetable kingdom which
takes birth in the body of a huge fish stretching eight thousand miles. The simile indicates the very short area as.
the object of minimum avadbi. 3. Vißeşāvaśyakabhāsya G. 598-607.
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