Jaina Psychology

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

Page 94

SENSORY AND MENTAL COMPREHENSION
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awareness? Jinabhadra defines contact-awareness as follows: 'What reveals an object even as a lamp reveals jar is contact-awareness. It is nothing but a relation between the sense-organ and the object in the form of its sense-datum such as sound'.1 Suppose, a man is asleep and is being awakened by a call. Now, according to the Jaina, sound which is material reaches his ears and he is awakened. But this process is not completed in a moment. It requires some time to occur. The sound-atoms reach the ears of the person in succession. Innumerable instants have to pass before the ears become full of the sound-atoms so that the person may be conscious of the call. For instance, a clay-cup (sarava) is to be made full of water. Before it is filled, some drops of water sink into it without demonstrating any overt sign of their separate existence. Gradually the cup is filled and the water in it becomes apparent. Similarly, the sound-atoms gradually reach the plane of consciousness of the person who is being awakened by the call.2 Contactawareness is nothing but the direct contact of an object with a sense-organ. Such being the case, it is, without any doubt, indeterminate. In other words, it is only an awakening of consciousness. Of the five sense-organs and the quasi-sense, i.e., mind, as we have already indicated, only four sense-organs, viz., the auditory sense-organ, the olfactory sense-organ, the tactual sense-organ, and the gustatory sense-organ are competent to establish a direct contact with their objects. Hence, it goes without saying that there are only four types of contact-awareness. The visual sense-organ is incompetent to establish a direct contact with its object, inasmuch as there is no possibility of physical contact between the eye and its object. To see a coloured shape a conjunction of the visual senseorgan with the shape is not required. The object is visualised by the sense of sight while remaining the former in its own province. This competency of the sense and its object is a specifically determinate characteristic. The mind is also incompetent for contact
1 Vamjijjai jenattho ghadovva divena vamjanam tam ca. Uvagaranimdiyasaddaiparinayadavvasambaṁdho. Viseṣāvaśyka-bhāṣya, 191.
2 Toena mallagam piva vamjanamāpuriyam ti jam bhaniyam. Ibid., 250.