New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

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New Dimensions in Jaina Logic
plank buried under the sand. Only a corner of the plank is visible. The corner appears as an independent entity. Similarly, on the subsidence of the sand the second corner appears to the sight. In this way, the third and the fourth may also come up and as a result four independent objects would constitute the cognitum. Ultimately on the subsidence of the entire mass of sand the resultant cognitum will be one individual undivided plank. Similarly, a cognition is called sensory if it occurs through a window of sense-organ. When a piece of thinking takes place through mind, we call it mental cognition. Cognitions are thus designated according to their media. On the removal of the entire veil all these divisions are dissolved. What remains then is unadulterated knowledge or unconditioned knowledge (kevalajñāna) or knowledge pure and simple, that is, knowledge which is spontaneous and inborn. The meaning of kevalajnāna is pure consciousness, unadulterated with anything else. Feelings are absolutely absent in such state of knowledge. While there is the element of feeling, there cannot arise pure and unalloyed knowledge. With the dawn of pure unadulterated consciousness, knowledge is converted into meditation, and with the perfection of such consciousness the meditation becomes knowledge, pure and perfect.
Question 4. Is knowledge, according to Jaina logic, competent to know only what is other than itself, or is it also capable of knowing itself?
Answer. Knowledge reveals itself as well as others. What does not reveal itself is not capable of revealing others, like a jar. Only the cognitum, which is insentient, is revealed by other than itself. Had the knowledge been capable of revealing only others and incapable of revealing itself, it would need the services of another knowledge to know it (viz. the first cognition). Similarly, the second will need the third, and so on ad infinitum--a process which would never come to an end. The sun does not require another sun for its revelation, because it is self-revealing as well. Similarly a knowledge does not require another knowledge for its knowledge, because it is self-revealing.
Question 5. Is super-sensual knowledge acknowledged by all? Is it amenable to a logical proof?
Answer. Super-sensory knowledge is accepted in Jaina philosophy. It has been accepted also in the Samkhya, Bauddha, Nyaya, Vaišesika, Mimāmsaka and similar systems. There is, however, a fundamental point of departure in this consensus. In the