Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 75

THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
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which transforms the indistinct awareness of the avagraha stage into a determinate cognition of the object; avaya or perceptual judgement which involves the determination of the existent qualities (in the object) to the exclusion of the non-existent ones, by reaching a conclusion as to what the object is, thus making the comprehension of the object almost complete; and dhāraṇā or retention that keeps the comprehension rooted in the mind of the knower for a length of time and is a sort of concentrated persistence for some time of the avaya or perceptual judgement-the knowledge gained continues.
In ancient texts, mati-jñāna is described as being synonymous with intelligence, remembrance, recognition, and reasoning, inductive as well as deductive. The particular type of karmic matter which viels, obscures, befogs or impedes the manifestation of mati-jñāna is called the mati-jñān-āvaraṇa.
Śruta-jñāna is knowledge obtained by interpretation of signs. A dumb person conveys his meaning through some sings or gestures, and a dog interprets the signs made by his master and understands what the latter wants him to do. Words are nothing but sings of ideas. Thus all verbal knowledge, or that obtained from articulate or sign communication is śruta-jñāna. It includes all scriptural or book knowledge. Śruta-jñāna is invariably preceded by mati-jñāna but whereas the latter cognizes only what is present, the former comprehends all the three time dimensions (past, present and future) relating to the object in question. The karman known as the śruta-jñān-āvaraṇa obscures or clouds this knowledge.
Avadhi-jñāna is a sort of clairvoyant knowledge or visual intuition which enables a person to know of material things, those having shape or form, without their coming into contact with the sense organs of the knower from whom those objects are far removed in space or time or both. Thus a person who has this faculty functioning in him can know of things, persons and events of the past and future, and of those occurring in far off places.