Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

Page 34

JAINA THEORY OF APPREHENSION
21
specific characters is comprehension. The apprehensionobscuring karma and the comprehension-obscuring karma obstruct these faculties. Because of the presence of these two, people like us are not in a position to possess apprehension and comprehension in all perfection. There is no reason why the universal and the particular should be revealed only in alternate succession and not simultaneously due to a particular kind of purification of the self.39
SUCCESSIVE OCCURRENCE OF APPREHENSION AND COMPREHENSION :
Now, we proceed to the problem of the successive occurrence of apprehension and comprehension in the omniscient. Jinabhadra is a great advocate of this view. He has very elaborately dealt with the problem in his Visesavasyaka-bhasya. He has recorded all the three positions and advanced arguments for and against all of them. His own opinion is in favour of the successive occurrence, since he sincerely recognises the authenticity of the scriptural texts. He argues that if perfect apprehension and comprehension are identical and not separate, what is the sense in recognising two separate veils of karma, viz., apprehension-obscuring karma and comprehensionobscuring karma ? Moreover, the scriptural conception of five types of comprehension and four types of apprehension is condemned by those who are not prepared to accept the successive occurrence of apprehension and comprehension.40 The view of the simultaneous occurrence of apprehension and comprehension is also unjustifiable,