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14
Sensation and Perception
IV/HILE translating some of the Samskrit terms into English or
W while comparing certain parallel concepts in other Western systems, sometimes subtle but significant distinctions discernible between terms (within the system under consideration) are lost sight of. The views of some thinkers within the system itself are sometimes mainly responsible for such a confusion regarding fundamental precepts. The Jaina concepts of sensation and perception clearly indicate the pit-falls inherent in an improper analysis of concepts. The scholarly world has been misled into a hasty attempt to mechanically compare Indian with Western concepts.
While distinguishing between darśana and jñāna we were using, as their English equivalents, the terms apprehension and comprehension respectively. The epistemological distinction we have drawn has impressed us with the psychological insight of the Jaina philosophers in regard to building up a consistent theory of knowledge. No wonder, therefore, oftentimes we find a comparison being made between darśana and sensation on the one hand and jñāna and perception on the other. The two stages in the evolution of knowledge, darśana and jñāna are, in brief, identified as the two psychological stages of sensation and perception. Such a comparison itself is not wrong provided its limitations are borne in mind.
One reason why sensation and darśana are mistaken to be identical is that both connote a stage of development from the merely organic state in the evolution of self-consciouness. The Jaina theory of consciousness should not be mistaken to overlook the
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