Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

Page 32

JAINA THEORY OF APPREHENSION
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TEMPORAL RELATION BETWEEN APPREHENSION AND COMPREHENSION:
There are four kinds of apprehension : visual apprehension, non-visual apprehension, apprehensive clairvoyance, and apprehensive omniscience. As regards temporal relation between apprehension and comprehension, there is no unanimity among the Jaina thinkers. The canonical conception is that two conscious activities cannot occur 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 Avasyaka-niryukti as "the omniscient cannot have two conscious activities simultaneously.34 Therefore, as regards the canonical conception, it is free from doubt thai apprehension and comprehension, whether they are sensory or extra-sensory, cannot occur simultaneously. Regarding their occurrence 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.