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JAINA THEORY OF COMPREHENSION
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the self as manifested in the act of knowledge. It occurs on the annihilation of the obscuring veils. The annihilation is nothing more than the total destruction of all the veils of the obscuring karmas. The person possessing the super-normal faculty of omniscience perceives all the substances with all their modes.73 For him nothing remains unknown. No object or any mode thereof remains unperceived. His knowledge is pure and perfect.
Now, there arises a question : If the self is luminous by its very nature, why should it be subject to obscuration ? And if obscuration is possible, it must be subject to obscuration for all time. Though luminous in nature, the light of the moon, the sun, and the like is liable to be covered by a veil of dust, by fog, by a patch of cloud, and so on. The case of the self is exactly parallel to these cases when it is found to be obscured by different veils of karma. The removal of the obscuration of the self is possible by the practice of a particular course of meditation and the like in the same way as the veil of the light of the sun, etc., is removed by a blast of wind.
References
1.
Narthalokau jnanasya nimittamavyatirekat. Pramana-mimamsa, I, 2, 25.
2.
Tattvartha-bhasya, I, 15.
3.
Avasyaka-niryukti, 3.
