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KNOWLEDGE
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the self is possible by the practice of a particular course of meditation and the like in the same way as the obscuration of the sun, the moon etc. is removed by a blast of wind. Arguments for the Existence of Omniscience :
The Jaina thinkers advance the following argument to prove the existence of omniscience : 'The proof of omniscience follows from the proof of the necessity of the final consummation of the progressive development of cognition." The progressive development of knowledge must reach its completion somewhere, because this is the way of all progression, as seen in the progression of magnitude. Just as heat is subject to varying degrees and consequently reaches the highest limit, so also cognition which is subject to progressive development owing to the various degrees of destruction of the obscuring veil, reaches the highest limit, i.e., omniscience, when the hindrance of the obscuring karma is totally annihilated.
The Mimāṁsakas are not prepared to accept the possibility of the occurrence of omniscience. To refute the theory of omniscience, the Mimāṁsaka asks : What does omniscience mean ? Does it mean the cognition of all the objects of the universe ? Or does it mean merely the comprehension of certain principal objects ? As regards the first alternative, does it mean the knowledge of all the objects of the universe in succession or simultaneously? In the former case, there can be no omniscience, inasmuch as the objects of the world in the shape of past, present and future can never be exhausted. This being the fact, the cognition conditioned by them also can never be complete. Because of the impossibility of the knowledge of all the objects of the world there cannot be omniscience. In the latter case also there can be no omniscience. It is an established fact that all the objects of the world are impossible to be known at one and the same time.
1. Prajiātisayavis rãntradisiddhestatsiddhih-Pramāna-mimāmsa, 1.1.16.
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