Jainism by Vividus

Author(s): Ramnik V Shah
Publisher: Ramnik V Shah Canada

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viewing a thing we are bound to go astray, It is but appropriate to state what a thing or a notion under discussion is with reference to substance, place, time and its condition of being.
The Jaina theory of knowledge rejects the theory of Maya of Advaitism (theory which states that Reality is only one of which everything else is but a manifestation) as well as the Buddhistic doctrine of illusoriness of the objective world. Knowledge is a lamp which, while revealing the objective world, also reveals itself. The external objects so known are having independent existence and yet they are related to the knowledge as revealed by it. Similarly the soul, the Jiva, one of the two Realities postulated by Jainism, both the subject and object of knowledge in one. Nature of the soul is revealed by the inner experience as being incapable of being measured by material units and this is a conscious entity, a 'chetana' always found associated with a body whose intrinsic property among many others is knowledge getting clouded in the state of the Samsara embodied by the Karmic matter. As such the process of knowing should be interpreted to be the manifestaton of the intrinsic property of knowledge, among other properties of the Jiva. According to how the soul has spiritually developed, it obtains knowledge in any one or all of the five ways viz 'mati'. i.e. own sense experiences and based on them collecting all the knowledge arrived at by inferences, "Shruta" i,e. heard as revealed from scriptures which in turn are revealed to the world by "Sarvajnas" (all-knowers), "Avadhi" i.e. clairvoyance, extra-sensory perception not ordinarily available to all persons though latent in every one (this enables one to see events actually taking place in a distant place or at a distant time),“Manahparyaya" i e. knowledge of thoughts arising in other minds (this has direct access to the minds of other persons, the capacity arising only as a result of Yoga practices or penance) and lastly “Kevala'i.e. infinite knowledge which the soul attains as a result of conditions opportune to final liberation or Moksha. These five ways of knowledge are termed in Jaina terminology Pramanas i.e. instruments, the first two viz "Mati" and "Shruta" being termed as "Paroksha" i,e. indirect knowledge