Jaina Theory of Knowledge

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad

Page 30

JAINA THEORY OF APPREHENSION
17
substance and modes. The contact between them is a relation which is a sort of competency constituted by the situation of the object in a spatio-temporal context which is neither too far, nor too near, nor intercepted by an obstructive barrier'.30 And this competency of the sense and the object is specifically determined. As, it has been observed : 'One hears a word when it is in conjunction with the auditory organ but sees a coloured figure even without conjunction.?! Apprehension is the cognition of an object which does not take into account specific determinations. It takes place immediately after the sense-object-contact.32 He further elaborates this point. Apprehension is the stuff which is transformed into comprehension. It is an established fact that nothing is produced which was absolutely non-existent and nothing existent is totally destroyed. Thus, apprehension itself undergoes transformation into the subsequent state, i.e., comprehension.33
This account of Hemacandra is a realistic one. He agrees with the Sankhya who holds that indeterminate cognition is the immediate apprehension of an object free from all associations of name, class, and the like. It is purely presentative in character. It cognises an object as merely ‘this' and not as “like this' or 'unlike this'. He agrees with the Vaisesika as well in maintaining that just after the intercourse of an object with a sense-organ there is the immediate apprehension of the mere form of the object. Like Sridhara, he also maintains that apprehension cognises both the general and particular features of its object as indistinguishable mass, and does not know the general