Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi

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JAINISM
relevant organ. For example, auditory perception requires first that the auditory sensations reach the ear and establish a 'sensecontact with it. The auditory sensations result from a transformation of the source of the sound, the object, into sound waves which reach the ear, and through the nerves stimulate consciousness. Then the sensations lead to their being identified as specific types of sensations. The vyañjanāvagraha stage is often considered as a necessary preliminary step leading to arthāvagraha and the latter as the consummation of the former. Contact-awareness is considered to be possible only with regard to four of the five sense organs, the eyes being excluded. Arthāvagraha is considered to be of six varieties resulting from the activity of the five sense organs and the mind.
The avagraha stage is considered to be instantaneous but the view that this refers to the arthāvagraha stage and not to the vyañjanāvagraha stage is also found. The reason is obvious. In the vyañjanāvagraha stage sensations (of different types) are said to constantly impinge on the sense organ concerned as a result of which alone there is the stimulation of consciousness. Only at a particular level there is the actual stirring of consciousness. As the sensations require a definite time-duration for their successfully ‘waking up' consciousness, the first stage is not considered to be instantaneous. In the Jaina terminology : countless number of instants lapse before the sensations are 'effective'. The moment consciousness is stirred up there is the object-comprehension. It is hence considered that arthāvagraha is not instantaneous. The question whether arthāvagraha is determinate or indeterminate has been debated but it is not relevant here when we analyse the different stages through which mati-jñāna is evolved.
Iha : The stimulation of consciousness (produced by vyañjanāvagraha) leads to the dawning of awareness (arthāvagraha) and hence the line of demarcation between the two is thin and imperceptible , this might have been one reason why there has been so much of difference of opinion among the Jaina philosophers in regard to the exact nature of avagraha.
The next stage in the evolution of perceptual knowledge, logically as well as psychologically, is the mind working upon the sensation it has received, thanks to the stirring of consciousness. This is refered to as īha or the speculative stage. In this stage there is an attempt to know more about the sensation that has been