New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

Page 29

Jaina Logic of Philosophical Period 21
estimate the value of logic. The Jainas never questioned the solid authority of logic. The reason for this is not far to seek if one clearly understands the subject-matter of the five kinds of knowledge, already discussed. Through mati and struta, one can know all the substances, but it is not possible to know all their modes through them. Substances are of two kinds (1) material (mūrta), and (2) immaterial (amurta). The immaterial substances are not cognised by the senses. They can only be known by the mind2 as well as through instructions of others. In the Jaina agamas six substances have been enumerated-Dharmästikāya, Adharmāstikāya, Ākāśāstikāya, Kāla, Pudgalāstikāya and Jivāstikāya. Among these, Pudgalāstikāya is material and the rest are immaterial. The immaterial substances are not amenable to senseperception, which implies that the knowledge of the necessary concomitance (vyapti) is not possible in such cases, and consequently the possibility of inference is out of question. It is, therefore, said that the immaterial substances can be known only through scriptural knowledge, that is, the knowledge acquired from instructions of others (who have direct knowledge of such substances). The sages, possessed of extra-sensory perception, acquired direct knowledge of the immaterial substances and propounded them. On the authority of them we understand that there are immaterial substances. The material substances can be known by the sense-organs. They are known only through a few modes that belong to them, and not through the entire range of their modes. The colour or shape of a thing can be known by the eye, which cannot, however, know the other modes. The verbal knowledge, conveyed by others, is acquired through the medium of words. But the words that we use are limited in number, and, as such, are incompetent to cover the entire range of modes individually, which may be numerable, innumerable or infinite. It is, therefore, not possible to know the modes in their entirety through instructions from others.3
Clairvoyance and mind reading can comprehend only the things which are made of matter. In omniscience, however, both the material and immaterial things are directly cognised."
The object is known directly in omniscience which, on this account, does not need any service of logical reasoning. An object is not known directly through the scriptural knowledge and that is the reason why there is scope for logical reasoning in it. Siddhantacakravarti Acarya Nemicandra has recognised two forms of scriptural knowledge- (1) derived from words, and (2) derived from!