New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

Page 115

Organs of Knowledge
107
follow it fall under the category of indirect cognition. This division of direct and indirect cognition is on the basis of lucidity-cuminstantaneousness or the absence of it. But from the viewpoint of causality both these categories are interrelated, the latter being a continuation of the former. Thus what is called retention (dhāranā) is identical with the traces formed in our mind which are awakened on the presentation of relevant causes and conditions.
In some logical schools the validity of memory is not accepted, but in Jainism it is considered as a valid organ of knowledge. Memory is a non-discrepant experience which includes also the knowledge of the previous birth, which implies that the remote past is within its reach. Memory is an authentic experience which leads to successful activity that pioves its undeniable validity.
The Buddhist logician refutes the validity of memory on the ground that it is dependent on a previous experience and does not reveal anything that was not known before. A valid organ of knowledge must be the revealer of a novel object. But as memory is devoid of such characteristic, it cannot be considered as a valid organ.
The great Mimāmsist Kumārila also has rejected the validity of memory on account of its cognition of what has already been cognized.
The great Naiyāyika Jayanta has refuted the validity of memory on the ground that it is not produced by an object. A cognition must be directly produced by its object. If a cognition is not produced by an authentic object, there is no reason why it - Juld be accepted as a valid organ,
The Jaina logicians, however, have refuted the above charges on the criterion of pragmatic efficiency of memory. We drink water and the thirst is quenched. We travel on the road and the destination is reached. Water quenches thirst, and this experience is responsible for the rise of memory in the future that makes a man drink water to quench thirst. The memory of the route linking two places enables a person to follow the right path to reach his destination. The fulfilment of activity proves absence of discrepancy of memory. Why, then, should one reject its validity even though it is dependent on a past experience or cognizant of what has already been cognized.