Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

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JAINA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
time, space and the like are. Of course, it is admitted that they are of direct service to the cause of the removal of knowledge-obscuring karma and also of direct serivce by benefiting the sense of vision. The question is : Then why should not they be held to be the direct conditions of the visual perception ? The answer is : Because there is no concomitance in difference between them which is the most essential form of universal relationship. For instance, it is observed that the perception (illusion) of water takes place in mirage (maricika) in the desert in spite of the absence of sensation of water in it and the cats and owls have, notwithstanding the absence of light, perceptual cognition of objects in a place steeped in thick pall of darkness.
NON-VERBAL COMPREHENSION :
Sensory (including mental) comprehension is of two kinds : verbal (sruta) and non-verbal (mati). As regards the number of the varieties of non-verbal comprehension (matijnana), there is a slight difference of opinion among the different authors of the school. This difference lies in the fact that some of them have unconsciously undergone a confusion between apprehension and comprehension. Or let us express the same fact in a different way. They have dealt with the process of cognition in general without indicating its two divisions, viz., apprehension and comprehension. They regard even the first stage of cognition, i.e. the contact of an object with a sense-organ as a kind of comprehension (jnana). We have already recorded the fact that up to the stage of the awareness of the existence of an object that