Jaina Psychology

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

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PREFACE
My aim in preparing the present treatise has been to make an humble contribution to one of the most significant systems of Indian thought, viz., Jainism. Like other thinkers of India the Jaina philosophers have also contributed to the field of Indian psychology. One remarkable thing in this connection is that the Jaina thinkers have developed their psychological investigations on the foundations of the Doctrine of Karma. Since the whole of our life-structure is based upon the working of karma, it is natural to seek the analysis and explanation of all our intellectual and motor activities through the assistance of karma. The Doctrine of Karma holds that every activity whether it be physical or mental produces, besides its perceptible consequence, also an imperceptible effect which is known as karma. In other words, every action generates certain potential energies which on passing a certain length of period change themselves into actual effects. This fact is not confined to the present life of a being. The effect may also appear in life after death. Moreover, it is the force of karmic particles that destines the state after death. The circle of birth and death is, however, a beginningless fact, and hence, it requires no explanation.
The Jaina account of the Doctrine of Karma is too vast to be adequately analysed in a single treatise. Bearing this fact in mind I have restricted myself to the psychological analysis of some of the salient features of the Jaina Doctrine of Karma. It is altogether a new attempt in this direction, and consequently, it is not an impossibility to present some of the remarks in an undesirable manner. It is also possible that I might have represented some of the Jaina tenets incorrectly. Despite these and such other defects I can humbly claim that the whole account has been prepared with an honest and faithful motive. It has been my aim to construct some of the fundamentals of psychology on the foundations of the Jaina Doctrine of Karma and to present the account in such a manner as to make the presentation interesting and intelligible to the reader who seeks to know what the Jaina thinkers tell about the nature of human mind, knowledge and its origination, feeling and emotion, activity and its control, and the like. An attempt has also been made to critically compare the Jaina analysis of different psychological problems with the investigations of modern Western psychology and the speculations of other schools of Indian philosophy where possible. It is not within my jurisdiction to declare how far I have been successful in performing this task. I need not state that the account is mostly based upon the original Prakrit and Sanskrit texts.
The treatise is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the study of the essentials of the Jaina Doctrine of Karma. With a preliminary background of the significance of the Doctrine of Karma in the philosophical systems of India, the Jaina conception of karma is briefly recorded. The second chapter deals with the problem of the nature of consciousness, its relation with the self, and its manifestation in the form of knowledge. Two varieties of cognition, viz., apprehension (darśana ) and comprehension (jñāna) which are generally called indeterminate