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COGNITION
JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
Consciousness is the essential characteristic of the self. It is present in all the states of existence. It is a permanent factor of life that undergoes various changes. Cognition is a particular modification, i.e., manifestation of consciousness. The Jaina thinkers, just like other Indian philosophers, recognize two chief varieties of cognition: indeterminate and determinate. The former is known as darśana, i.e., apprehension and the latter is called jñāna, i.e., comprehension. Each of them is again divided into different kinds. Since the soul is the source of consciousness, it possesses infinite cognition. It also possesses infinite power and infinite bliss. Thus, if a soul were in its pristine state, it would enjoy infinite apprehension, infinite comprehension, infinite bliss, and infinite power. The mundane souls do not possess these faculties in their perfection, since they are obscured and distorted on account of their association with the obscuring (ghatin) karmas.
PRINCIPLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The theory of soul holds that the principle of consciousness must be a substantial entity, for psychic phenomena are activities, and no activity is possible unless there exists an agent. Since the modifications of consciousness are immaterial in character, the substantial agent must also be something immaterial. It cannot be brain, because the brain is composed of matter. William James admits that to posit a conscious principle influenced in some mysterious way by the brain-states and responding to them by conscious affections of its own, seems to be the line of least logical resistance. Likewise, Mary Whiton Calkins holds that the self, far from being merely a metaphysical concept, was an ever-present fact of immediate experience and fully worthy to be made the central fact in a system of scientific psychology. The Jaina thinkers believe in a permanent principle of consciousness undergoing different modifications. This principle is not a material entity but an immaterial substance independent of the body as well as the brain. The self is directly experienced owing to the realisation of 'I' in 'I did, I do, and I shall do'. The self which is the substratum of thought-activities, is self-evident owing to its activities being self-evident. The attributes like cognition, etc., cannot be ascribed to the body, inasmuch as the body has a form, i.e., material shape, whereas cognition
