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The Extra-ordinary Nature of Rasa-Experience
Hemachandra explains (basing his argument on Mammața's passage, reproduced here in part) that this Rasa is not an effect, i.e., something produced (Utpadita) by Vibhāva etc., for, if it were an effect, it would continue to exist even after these excitants and the rest cease to exist. For example, the Ghata being Karya, continues to exist even after the destruction of the Kulāladanda and other causes that operated to produce it. But this is not happening in the Rasa-experience, since Rasa lasts so long as the Vibhāvādi continue to ex Again, Rasa is not something to be made known ( 7167) by the Vibhāvādi, as it is never an accomplished entity like a Ghata, Pata, etc., in actual fact, it is only manifested or suggested by the Vibhāvādi and is something to be relished. It may be asked : Is there anything that exists and is still neither produced nor made known ? The reply is : nothing is seen to exist like Rasa which is neither Kārya nor Jñāpya; but it is true that what occurs in the Rasa-experience is not seen anywhere else because it shows the transcendental or extraordinary nature of Rasa and it does not vitiate but confirms this nature of Rasa. It may be said to be an effect by reason of its being accomplished by relishing it; and it may be regarded as known or cognized in the sense that it forms the object of a super-physical consciousness ( Faragatat:) which differs from perception etc. (ordinary forms of cognition) and from the cognition of the imperfect yogin, which is independent of the ordinary means of cognition and also from the cognition of the perfect yogin, which is self-centered and free from all touch of any other cognisable thing. The Pramāņa that apprehends it is not of the Nirvikalpaka (indeterminate) kind, since in Rasa-realization there is a due recognition of the Vibhāvādi as important elements of it, nor is it Savikalpaka or of the determinate type, since it is merely relished as an extraordinary bliss and depends wholly on its own realization (which is not true of Savikalpakajñāna). Here also the fact that
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