Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

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JAINA THEORY OF COMPREHENSION
PERCEPTION :
Perception is the third variety of non-verbal sensory comprehension. It follows in the wake of speculation. The enquiry that begins in the state of speculation attains completion at this stage. In speculation our mental state tends towards the inquiry for the right and the wrong and in perception we attain the stage of the ascertainment of the right and the exclusion of the wrong. 26 In other words, perception is a determinate cognition of the specific feature of an object. It arises from the exclusion of the wrong and the ascertainment of the right. Now, how does perception involve the ascertainment of the existent specific feature and the exclusion of the non-existent character ? Take the same instance of sound. On hearing the sound the person determines that this sound must be of a conch and not of a horn, since it is accompanied by sweetness which is the quality of conch, and not by harshness which is the quality of horn. This type of ascertainment of the existent specific feature of an object is called perception.27 It is without any reference to indeterminateness, as is the case with speculation. This is one view. The other view regards this stage of cognition as the mere exclusion of the non-existent qualities. It ascribes the function of comrehending the existent qualities to the latter stage of cognition, viz., retention (dharana).28 Retention, according to this view, is an ascertainment of the right feature. The third stage is only an exclusion of the wrong one. Jinabhadra, a staunch supporter of the former view, ciriticises this conception as absurd. He holds that whether a cognition merely excludes