Book Title: Jaina Psychology
Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

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Page 212
________________ CONCLUSION AND RECAPITULATION 195 it does not occupy a particular site in the body as the other se organs do, nor does it last for a long period like the other senses. It is called quasi-sense (anindriya), since it is not of the status of an external sense-organ such as eye, ear, etc. It is further maintained that mind is the organ of cognition of all objects of all the senses. In other words, all objects of all the external senses, and not specifically determined such as colour is of the visual sense, are cognised by the mind. It is also of two types just like the five senseorgans: physical and psychical. The physical mind is in the shape of the material particles transformed into it. The stuff of which it is composed is technically known as “manovargaņā' which means the group of atoms competent to form the mind. The psychical mind is nothing but the conscious activity of the self apt to cognise an object which consists in the destruction-cum-subsidence of the relevant obscuring karma. SENSE-OBJECT-CONTACT With the solitary exception of the visual sense, all the external senses prehend their objects coming in direct contact with them. The Jaina, unlike the Sānkhya, holds that the senses do not move to their objects in the form of modifications but the objects themselves come in contact with the senses. The senses remain in the same state as they are situated in their sites. The mind, it goes without saying, cognises its objects without having any conjunction with them. NON-VERBAL SENSORY AND MENTAL COMPREHENSION Sensory and mental comprehension is of two kinds: verbal (śruta) and non-verbal (mati). The essential condition of nonverbal comprehension is the destruction-cum-subsidence of matijñānāvaraṇa karma--the first species of comprehension obscuring karma. The generation of verbal comprehension is essentially conditioned by the destruction-cum-subsidence of śruta-jñānāvarana karma—the second type of comprehension-obscuring karma. Other conditions that help in producing these comprehensions are auxiliary, and not essential. The Jaina thinkers classify non-verbal comprehension into four categories: sensation (avagraha), speculation (īhā), perception or perceptual judgment, (avāya), and retention (dhāraņā). Sensation is a vague cognition of the distinctive nature of an object following the apprehension of its existence emerging just

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