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Ajñāna
477
menal ignorance) Mülājñāna is one. It is destroyed at realization only. Tulajñānas are as many as there are cognitions. Every cognition destroys the corresponding tulajñāna while the others subsist as they were.
The last view can be compared with the Jaina theory of kevalajñānāvarana and the four types matijñānāvarana etc., which can be put in other words as sakalajñānāvarana (obscurance of complete knowledge) and vikalajñānāvarana (obscura. nce of incomplete knowledge). The Jaina theory of ksayopašama is a combination of the first and second views. The first propounds partial destruction (ksaya)which the Jaipas do not believe.
The next question relates to the position of tulājñānas. There are two views regarding it :
1. According to the first view these ajñānas also have no beginning just as Mülājñāna.
2. According to the second view they are not without beginning. They come and go like the states of dream and sleep.
According to Jainism the duration of all the karmans is fixed. None can be said as beginningless. Yet, all the karmans are beginningless in respect of their stream. The old are destroyed and new ones come in. This stream is sometimes thick and sometimes thin. When it is thick the amount of knowledge decreases. When it is thin the amount of knowledge increases. But, this gradation occurs in the four types of incomplete knowledge only. Kevala has no gradation. It occurs at the destruction of obscurance completely. Consequently, it is permanent. In this respect we can say that the obscurance of kevala is beginpingless. It does not mean that the same obscuring substance is in operation from the time without beginning. The maximum duration of the obscuring substance is twenty kodakodi sāgaropama; after which it cannot remain attached with the soul. It only means that the obscurance of kevala has no beginning and consequently the stream of its obscurance also is without beginning. This cannot be said of other types as they
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