Jaina Theory of Knowledge

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

Page 56

JAINA THEORY OF COMPREHENSION
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instants, numerable or innumerable. 35 According to the Tattvartha-bhasya, retention is the final determination of the object, retention of the cognition, and recognition of the object in the future.36 Thus, according to the opinion of Umasvati, retention develops through three stages. Firstly, the nature of the object is finally determined, secondly, the determination of the object is retained, and thirdly, the object is recognised on future occasions. Jinabhadra defines retention as the absence of the lapse of perceptual cognition'.37 At this stage the judgment which has been acquired in the third stage of comprehension, becomes so firm that it does not lapse. Like Umasvati he also admits three stages of retention. As he says : “The absence of lapse of the perceptual judgment of the object, the formation of mental trace, and the recollection of it in the future constitute the fourth category of non-verbal comprehension. All of them follow in the wake of perception'.38 These three varieties are quite similar to the stages admitted by Umasvati. Pujyapada defines retention as the condition of the absence of forgetting in the future of what has been cognised in the state of perception'. 34 Akalanka defines it 39 “the absence of forgetting the same of what has been cognised by perception'.40 Vidyananda defines it as 'the condition of recall’.41 Vadideva gives a different definition. According to him, retention is the consolidation of perception.42 It is the gradual consolidation and the absence of the lapse of perceptual cognition for some time because of the mindfulness of the cogniser.43 He criticises the view of those who regard retention as the condition of recall in the future. It has been observed by him that retention is