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Jaina Ethics
not know even the substratum of all knowledge, how can his knowledge be right? The truth is that one who knows one, knows all and who knows all, knows one.1 Knowledge to be right should be relative. This implies non-absolutism which is another name for right faith. Absence of bookish knowledge or wrong perception arising out of the weakness of senses is not real ignorance.
Limitations of knowledge
Some of the systems of Indian Philosophy hold that knowledge alone can lead to liberation. Vidyanandi has refuted this view in the beginning of his commentary on Tattvärthas ūtra. His arguments can be summarised thus: A man, even after acquisition of knowledge remains embodied for some time. This is also accepted by Sankhya, Vaiseşika and Vedanta as necessary for the enjoyment of residual karmans. Now the question is this that a person who has acquired right knowledge will not be reborn; then how does it become possible for him to exhaust all his residual karmans before leaving his body ?2 The soul must put some special efforts for it. This effort in the form of meditation is a form of conduct, which annihilates the residual karmans by the process of nirjara. Therefore, right knowledge combined with right conduct brings emancipation.
The position of right knowledge in Indian culture
Knowledge occupies a very significant position in the history of Indian philosophy. By the term 'knowledge', two psychological phenomena are indicated: (1) Knowledge of the external objects, which may be called 'mundane knowledge', (2) Knowledge of the self, which directly comes through self-realisation.4 This is the latter type of knowledge, called tattvajñāna, which according to Vedanta, Nyaya and Sankhya systems of philosophy, directly leads to liberation.
In Jainism, which is mainly an ethical system, know
I.
Acārāngasútra, 1. .4.1. SBE, Vol. XXII, p. 34.
2. Vidyanandi on Tattvärthasutra, Bombay, 1918, 1.1.
(verses 50-51).
3. Ibid. 1.1. (verses 52).
4. Mundakopanisad, 1.1.5.
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