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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
'The varieties of the same are recollection, recognition, inductive reasoning, inference and authority." Recollection :
Recollection is a cognition which has for its condition the stimulation of a memory-impression (retention) and which refers to its content by a form of the pronoun 'that."
When requisite conditions such as the elimination and subsidence of obstructive veils, observation of similar objects and the like (similarity, contiguity and contrast of modern psychology) are at work to bring it to maturation, recollection occurs. And so the clause 'which has for its condition the stimulation of a memory-impression' has been stated. The phrase 'which refers to its content by a form of the pronoun that' is inserted for setting forth its mode of communication.
It is Jainism alone that regards recollection (smsti) as a valid and independent means of cognition among all the philosophical systems in India. As a consequence, it has to face many objections from the side of opponents. How can recollection be a means of cognition when it is not cognisant of a datum perceived at present, and thus is found to lack an objective basis ? This is an objection. The answer is : It is certainly possessed of an object that has been experienced in the past. The reality of the object, and not its actually felt presence, is the condition of validity of a cognition. If it be contended, on the analogy of perception, that the object must be felt as present in order that the cognition may be valid, one might with equal force contend that perceptual cognition is invalid, since it is found to lack the criterion of referring to a fact that has been experienced in the past. If the opponent thinks that the revelation of the relevant object is the criterion of validity, it is found to be
.
1. Smaranapratyabhijñānatarkānumānāgamabhedatastat pañca
prakāram - Ibid., III. 2. 2. Väsanodbodhahetu kā tadityakarā smrtih - Pramāna-mimāmsā, I. 2.3.
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