Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

Page 51

38
JAINA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
sense-organ are competent to establish a close contact with their objects. Hence, there are only four types of contactawareness. The visual sense-organ is incompetent to establish a close 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 sense-organ 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 determined characteristic. The mind is also imcompetent for contact-awareness, since it has no physical contact with its object.'5
“This is sound' is an example of object-awareness. In this state of knowledge, the person does not cognise the exact nature of the sound.16 He is conscious of some sound but does not cognise the definite nature of it, such as from where the sound has come, whose sound is this, and the like. This is one opinion. The other opinion is that in this state, the person is aware only of the occurrence of the cognition and not of its specific content, since it lasts only for a moment."? How is it possible that an instantaneous apprehension should be of a definite form ? “This is sound' is a definite cognition which is not instantaneous. Besides, it is determinate and distinct, for it is exclusive of everything else other than sound. As we have already mentioned, according to this opinion sensation is indeterminate and indefinite, and hence, the cognition which is definite and determinate cannot be accommodated in the region of sensation. Hence, object-awareness is always confined to