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Neuroscience & Kamma D. Śrul-iñana (Verbal/Scriptural Knowledge)
Sruta which originally meant 'scripture' gradually came to mean any symbol, written or spoken, and finally was even identified wiih inaniculate knowledge. Both mari and śruta are the results of partial removaland suósidence of kārmic matier veiling the innale faculty of the soul. Asout could never be bereft of mati and śruta. Even the one-sensed organisms, e.g. plants (vegetable kingdom) are held to be possessed of both these categories. To be bereft of these is to lose the nature of soui and become a non-soul. It is admitted that one-sensed organisms have neither the tongue to speak nor the ear to listen nor have they any symbol of their own. But, nevertheless they are capable of potential verbal knowledge.
Mari and sruta are thus very much interdependent and it is difficult to separate them. In brief, we can say that perceptual knowledge that is due to the activity of sense-organ(s) is mati and when it is capable of expressing to others, in some manner, it becomes sruta. The versatile knowledge of the objects of perception whose versatility is in proportion to the learnedness of the cognizer is śruta-jñára.
It is not difficult to see that Jains recognize the words as well as other symbols such as physical gestures as śruta. Thus there is aksaršruta which comprises the shape of the letter (script), the sound of the letter (spoken letter) and its conventional meaning. On the otber hand, there is anaksarsruta comprised of physical gestures.
As stated above, mati and śruta are dependent upon the help of various external organs. The other three categories, which are completely free from the dependence upon extemal instruments, are direct apprehension of truth and reality by the soul. Distance, spatial or temporal, is not a hindrance on the capacity of the soul to know. The question of physical contact or limited distance or size comes in only when the inherent capacity is limited. And the delimitation, even, is not ultimately due to some extraneous condition. It is due to the soul itself which has acquired the karmic veil by its own activity. It has also the ability to remove the karmic veil which can be partly or totally removed.
