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Epistemology of Jainas
general characteristics of things, and thus are only symbols which can never take us to the heart of reality. Ordinary perception also does not reach there, as it is confined to gross objects only. As the right knowledge of samadhi is gradually more and more sustained, the potencies of imperfect knowledge and ignorance of ordinary consciousness are superseded. These potencies being superseded, those states of consciousness cannot manifest themselves, and thus samādhi becomes strengthened, and by the strengthening of samadhi, comes further prajñā; new potencies of prajñā come to be accumulated, and these bring in the prajñā states, and thus further strengthen their potencies. Thus, the potencies of ordinary consciousness being gradually rooted out, the yogin remains in a new world of right knowledge or prajñā consciousness. But, it is the peculiarity of this prajñā consciousness that neither it nor its potencies serve to bind the purusa except by loosening the knots or avidyā, which gradually tend to disintegrate the citta and dissociate it from the purusa.
We have seen above that in the bigher and higher stages of samādhi the mind passes from the gross objects to the finer ones. It happens in the same order reversed, in which the apparent universe comes into existence. This returning process reaches its final stage when the equilibrium of praksti is attained. In that state buddhi, which fascinated purusa into its charm, disappears into praksti. This state of trance or samadhi is known as asamprajñāta samādbi or the contentless meditation. The final prajñās which help the movement of this returning process are said to be of seven kinds. The first four are as states of consciousness associated with the four stages of samādhi. The first one dawns in the form : "I have known the world, the object of suffering and misery, I have nothing more to know of it.” The second stage is of the form; "The grounds and the roots of samskāras have been thoroughly uprooted, nothing more of it remains to be uprooted." The third is of the form; “Removal has become a fact of direct cognition by means of inhibitive trance." The fourth is of the form "The
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