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1
SENSORY AND MENTAL COMPREHENSION
defines retention as 'the absence of the lapse of perceptual cognition." At this stage the judgment which has been acquired in the third stage of comprehension, becomes so firm that it does not lapse. Like Umāsväti he also admits three stages of retention. As he says: "The absence of lapse of the perceptual judgment of the object, the formation of mental trace, and the recollection of it again in the future constitute the fourth category of non-verbal comprehension. All of them follow in the wake of perception.' These three varieties are quite similar to the stages admitted by Umāsvāti. Pūjyapāda defines retention as 'the condition of the absence of forgetting in the future of what has been cognised in the state of perception. Akalanka defines it as 'the absence of forgetting the same of what has been cognised by perception'.4 Vidyananda defines it as 'the condition of recall'.5 It is, like the other categories, of the nature of cognition, since it is the condition of another cognition called recollection. Vadideva gives a different definition. According to him, retention is the consolidation of perception. It is the gradual consolidation and the absence of the lapse of perceptual cognition for some time because of the mindfulness of the cogniser." He criticises the view of those who regard retention as the condition of recall in the future. It has been observed by him that retention is nothing but the consolidation of perception for a certain length of time. It is not the condition of recall in the future, since it is a category of perceptual cognition and, hence, cannot last up to the time of recollection. Furthermore, if it were to last up to that time, it would be impossible to cognise anything else during that interval, inasmuch as even the exponents of the said view are not prepared to admit the presence of two conscious activities at the same
..aviccui dharaṇā tassa. Viseṣāvaśyaka-bhāṣya, 180.
2 Ibid., 291.
3 Avetasya kālāntare avismaraṇakāraṇaṁ dhāranā. Sarvartha-siddhi, I, 15.
5
4 Nirjñätärthavismṛtirdhäraṇā.
Tattvärtha-rāja-vârttika, I, 15, 4. ..smytihetuḥ să dhāraṇā. Tattvärtha-śloka-värttika, I, 15, 4. Sa eva drdhatamavasthapanno dhāraṇā. Pramāṇa-naya-tattvaloka, II, 10. 7 Syadvada-ratnākara, II, 10.
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