Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

Page 74

Six Approaches to Omniscience in Indian Philosophy 65 Brahman when Saunaka enquires from Angira 'knowing what one knows everything' it is replied that 'It is Brahman'1.
While the term 'Sarvajñata' does not occur even a single time in the whole of the Vedas, it occurs for 31 times in the whole of 120 Upanisads but where as in the principal Uranisads the term denotes 'knowledge about the Self', in the minor Upanisads, we find references about the omniscience of God and other deities. We pass from the Vedic conception of Physical omniscience to the metaphysical omniscience of the Upanisads. Soul-knowledge is all-knowledge, hence the Upanisadic message: 'Know thyself". But this 'soul-knowledge' which is equivalent to 'all-knowledge' does not mean each and every details of the contingent world. It would simply mean the complete negation of nescience, the cosmicillusion, by fully grasping the underlying reality. Strangely enough, this Atmanic Approach to knowledge is common both to the Upanisads and some of the Jaina thinkers like Kundakunda and Yogîndu. Kunda-kunda identifies Sarvajñata with Atmajñata meaning thereby that any ethics of self-realisation must aim at knowing the Self which is the highest principle of their metaphysics and morality. But at some places there is greater emphasis over Brahmans or even the Creator God and His omniscience than this subject-objectless Atman1.
1. Mundaka Upanisad, 1. 1. 3, 1. 1. 6.
2. Chandogya Upanisad, 7. 1. 1, 6. 1. 1-3; Bṛhadaranyak Upanisad, 3. 7. 1; Mundaka Upanisad, 1. 1. 37.
3. Katha-Upanisad (Sankara Bhāṣya ), 2. 2. 13: Māṇḍūkya Upanisad, 1. 6; Mundaka Upanisad 1. 1. 9, 2. 2. 7; Kena Upanisad (Sankara Bhāṣya ), 3. 1; Svetasvatara Upanisad, 1. 4, 1. 9; Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad, 7. 1. 3. 21; Subala Upanişad, Ch. 5, p. 245; Śuka-Rahasya, 1. 9, p. 257.
4. Mandukya Upanisad (Adi Prakarana ), 3. 36; Alatsanti Prakarapa, 4. 85; 4. 89; Mundaka Upanisad, 1. 1. 9, 2. 2. 7; Adhyatma Upanisad, V. 13, p. 537; Tripuratapina Upanişad, Ch. 2, p. 537.
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