Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 28

THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE
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Normally, however, a judgment is valid, and is accepted as valid without question; only if, for any reason, such as distance, doubt is possible, are further cognitions sought; if then a sublating cognition is found, and on further investigation it is not sublated either directly or indirectly, then the falsity of the first cognition appears; if, on the other hand, the sublating cognition is itself sublated, the validity of the first cognition is fully established. Thus, in lieu of the regressus in infinitum of the Nyāya theory, no more than three or four cognitions are necessary to establish the validity of any cognition, or, to put it more precisely, to negate the objections which may be adduced to impair its normal validity.
Prabhākara? similarly maintains the validity of all cognitions as such, and illustrates, in an interesting manner, the diverse modes in which apparent non-validity arises. When mother-of-pearl is mistaken for silver, the error is due to the fact that the percipient observes in the object presented to him the qualities common to the shell and the silver, and omits to notice those which differentiates the two; memory thus brings back to him the cognition of silver, and this cognition is itself real, leading no less than the actual perception of silver to the normal action of seeking to take up the object. Memory here plays the percipient false, for it does not present the silver as connected with something formerly perceived, thus differentiating it from the object actually before the eyes, and this failure is due to a certain weakness of the mind. Similarly, memory is to blame wben we mistake one direction for another; the real direction is not seen, and the wrong is remembered. In the dream-state the cognitions which arise are erroneous, in as much as the things seen seem to be directly apprehended, whereas they are only remembered. The factor of apprehension on a previous occasion is lost sight of, thus obliterating the essential distinction between what is apprehended and what is remembered. The presentation of impressions in sleep is
1 Prakaranapancikā, pp. 32-38; Btandarkar Commemoration Volume, pp. 167-70.