Religion and Culture of the Jains

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

Page 77

THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
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to all the other entities in the universe, in some way or the other, it follows that complete knowledge of one entity involves complete knowledge of all the others. If the relations are real and it is possible to know them, omniscience is the logical conclusion. The Jaina canonical axiom that 'one who knows one, knows all, and one who knows all, knows one', characteristically sums up the theory.
Of the five kinds of knowledge detailed above, the first two, mati and śruta, are indirect and mediate as they are acquired through the sense organs and the mind. The other three, avadhi, manaḥ-paryaya and kevala, are direct and immediate since for them the soul requires no media such as the senses and the mind.
No soul, or living being, in however low stage of evolution it may exist, can be totally bereft of mati-jñāna and śrutajñāna, although in the lowest forms of life, such as plant life, they are present only in the smallest degree. The presence of feelings and sensations in the plants is a scientifically proven fact.
Again, the first three kinds of knowledge (the sensuous, the scriptural and the clairvoyant) may be right, or they may be wrong, false or perverted. It depends upon the attitude of the knower-if his attitude or outlook is perverted the knowledge obtained by him will be perverted, it cannot be right. Lack of discrimination between truth and non-truth, perverted or vitiated understanding and absence of self-control render the knowledge wrong, false and perverted, even if apparently it is correct. In other words, the actual sensuous perception and cognition of the object may be quite correct, but the perverted meaning or slant with which the object is being viewed at makes the knowledge perverted and false, just as fresh milk poured into a bitter gourd turns sour.
As a matter of fact, human constitution is such that as soon as a person frees himself from moral vices and succeeds in