New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

Page 125

Organs of Knowledge
117
the jar appears wet. Now, is that jar wet on account of the last drop of water? Did it not become wet with the very first drop of water? It is not proper to consider the last moment alone as the moment of wetness. The very first moment also made its contribution to the wetting process. If the jar was not wet at the first moment, it could not be wet at the last also. Similarly, had not the process of definitive cognition started at the first moment, the state of definitive perceptual judgment could not have been reached even at the last moment. The perceptual judgment is a consummation of a process that started from the very beginning. It is in this sense of consummation that the avāya or the perceptual judgment is called definitive cognition, though precisely speaking the stages of determinate perception (avagraha) and speculation (iha) are also definitive in their own way.