________________
Mahavira's Discourses
to mean marital fidelity, and non-possession to mean progressive reduction of possessions by charity.
Upon liberation, the jiva attains the state of siddha (blessedness), achieves kevala-jnana (direct and omniscient knowledge), and retains individuality. When the jiva is embodied in existential forms, its capacity for perfect knowledge is eclipsed by the media of passions and emotions caused by karmic consequences. This modification of jiva's inherent capacity limits the possibility of human knowledge to a relative point of view, observing Reality tangentially. Because of this the Jain logicians recognize sapta-bhangi (seven-fold perception) by which some knowledge may be attained. Such cumulative knowledge (anekantavada) from multiple points of view (nayavada) and plurality of perceptions (syadvada) does not necessarily provide the certainty of knowledge. To take some examples :
In winter a person coming from outside into the room may find it warm, but a man who has been in it for a long time may find in non-warm at the same time, while the true character of the room may be indiscribable. Hence it is possible to predicate that, 1) the room is warm, 2) the room is not warm, 3) the room is warm-and-not-warm, and 4) the true character of the room is not describable. This gives four points of view from which the room could be predicated. Combining affirmative and negative quality succeedingly and simultaneously, the Jain logicians point out the possibility of seven points of view to predicate about the room at the same time.
The fable of five tindmen trying to “know” an elephant, and making positive and negative statements about it from different points of view within the limited experience, none of which could be exclusively or completely true in regard to totality nor completely false in respect to particular aspects.
A mountain could be viewed from many points of view, not one of them need necessarily be the only or correct view. The perceptions could be vitiated by the state of mind and emotion of the perciever, or the state of the weather or the season.
Jains classify knowledge into five kinds : (1) mati (mind cognition, including memory, recognition, and induction); (2) sruti (knowledge derived through signs, symbols, mythic
