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KNOWLEDGE
The person possessing the faculty of telepathy is necessarily a homeless ascetic. His character must be of a higher type. Such conditions are not set down in the case of clairvoyance. The faculty of telepathy is far more superior to that of clairvoyance. The Jaina thinkers recognise two varieties of telepathy: rjumati and vipulamati. The latter is purer and everlasting, i.e., lasts up to the dawn of omniscience, whereas the former is less pure and sometimes trembles too.' The latter perceives less number of objects than the former but apprehends them more vividly. It is only he who is at the upward stage of spiritual advancement, is possessed of the latter, whereas the former is possessed by one who is sure to descend the spiritual ladder. The latter is more lucid than the former.
1. Tattvärtha-sutra, 1. 25. 2. Ibid., I. 26.
Clairvoyance and Telepathy:
the
Both clairvoyance and telepathy have reference to material objects. Such being the case, what is the line of demarcation between the two? The difference of clairvoyance and telepathy consists in the difference of purity, scope, subject and object.2 The perception of telepathy is more lucid than the perception of clairvoyance. The person possessing power of clairvoyance also perceives mind, but the person possessing the faculty of telepathy perceives the same more lucidly. The scope of clairvoyance varies from an extremely minute part of an angula up to the whole inhabited universe. But the scope of telepathy is limited to the sphere inhabited by human beings only. With regard to the difference of subject, the acquisition of clairvoyance is possible for living beings in all the possible states. But the faculty of telepathy is possible only for a human being possessed of selfrestraint and of noble conduct occupying a certain stage of spiritual development. In other words, only those who are
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