Jaina Psychology

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

Page 68

CONSCIOUSNESS AND COGNITION
simultaneously. Even two perfect conscious activities, viz., perfect apprehension and perfect comprehension are not an exception to this rule. This fact is recorded in the Avaśyaka-niryukti as 'the omniscient cannot have two conscious activities simultaneously'.1 Therefore, as regards the Canonical conception, it is free from doubt that apprehension and comprehension, whether they are sensory or extra-sensory, cannot occur simultaneously. Regarding the occurrence of them in an imperfect person, the Jaina thinkers are unanimous, inasmuch as all of them admit the impossibility of the simultaneous occurrence of apprehension and comprehension in an imperfect being. But with respect to the case of a perfect person (omniscient) there is a controversy among them. Their opinions can be classified into three varieties. Some of them hold that the apprehension and comprehension (both extra-sensory) in an omniscient person occur simultaneously, some stick to the Canonical conception and regard them as successive and not operating at the same time, while others assert that they are mutually identical. Let us deal with all the three.
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SIMULTANEITY OF APPREHENSION AND COMPREHEN
SION
It has been observed by Umāsvāti that the conscious activities (upayoga) manifesting themselves as sensory cognition, scriptural cognition, clairvoyance, and telepathy, (mati, śruta, avadhi, and manaḥparyaya) occur successively and not simultaneously. The conscious activities of the omniscient, possessing perfect cognition which comprehends all objects and is independent and pure, occur simultaneously at every moment.2 Umāsvāti, thus, upholds the view of the simultaneous occurrence of apprehension and comprehension in the case of the omniscient. Kundakunda also holds the same view. It is observed by him that the comprehension and apprehension of an omniscient person operate at the same time even as the light and heat of the sun occur simultaneously." Pujyapada is also of the same opinion. According to him, comprehension and apprehension occur in succession in the imperfect who is under the influence of obstructive karma, while in the perfect who is completely free from
1 Avasyaka-niryukti, 973.
2 Tattvärtha-bhāṣya, I, 31.
3 Niyama-sara, 159.