New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

Author(s): Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers

Page 103

Organs of Knowledge 95
Result of the Valid Organ or Knowledge
As a believer in the existence of soul the Jaina philosopher identifies the soul as the knower (pramātā). Consciousness (jñāna) is an attribute of the soul, and because it is the most vital instrument of a valid cognition, the Jaina philosopher asserts that consciousness (jñāna) is the valid organ of knowledge (pramāṇa). The cessation of ignorance is effected only by means of consciousness (jñāna), and so the consciousness qua cessation of ignorance is the result of the valid organ of knowledge.
The Naiyayika philosophers here argue that the selfsame consciousness (jñāna) cannot be accepted both as the organ and the result of knowledge. If the consciousness itself is the organ as well as the result, it should be only one of the two, viz. cognition and its result. How, can a consciousness be both the organ and the result at the same time? The solution to the problem as proposed by the Naiyayika philosopher is that the function of the senses, contact between the object and the senses etc. that are the indispensable instruments of cognition, constitute the organ whereas the resultant cognition of the object or the experience (prama) is the result of that organ.
There is no difference of opinion between the Jaina and the Nyaya logical traditions about the nature of valid organ of knowledge as the most essential instrument of a valid experience (prama). But the difference lies in the fact that the Nyaya school has admitted the function of the senses, sense-object-contact etc., that are insentient elements, as the vital instruments of the valid experience (prama). The Jaina philosopher, on the contrary, does not accept such insentient factors as constituting the vital instrument, but according to him the cognition alone is such instrument. According to Nyaya philosopher the instrument that produces the cognition is the valid organ and the cognition is the result (of that organ). The implication of the Jaina position is quite different, according to which the immediately preceding moment of cognition (that is the cause) is the organ while the cognition which immediately succeeds it (as the effect) is the result (of the organ). As the conscious soul itself qua the organ is transformed into an effect (viz. cognition), it is not admitted that the cognition qua result is the effect of an organ that is insentient. The upshot is that the cognitive function directed on the object is the organ and the consequent cognitive function qua the cessation of ignorance is the result. The direct result of cognition is the cessation of ignorance,