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KNOWLEDE OBSCURING KARMA
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matijñāna which does not depend upon reading or hearing. The cause of the presence of the knowledge is not to be found in anything that person has done in this life, but by reason of something he has done in a previous life. (For instance, if upon seeing a gas stove for the first time he at once understands it.) Then, again, the moral nature helps to give a knowledge; and also with age the person is able to do better than he did in the early part of life, which improvement is not the result of study or reading.
And also there is the matijñāna which is the result of study or reading.
The 2nd form of knowledge is śrutajñāna. Knowledge derived through reading, study. Knowledge derived from the interpreting of symbols or signs. Words are symbols of ideas. Knowledge derived from any kind of sign. If a dog sees his master wave his hand, the dog interprets the sign and knows that his master wants him to come. This is a higher form or channel of knowledge than the first, but still it is based on sensation if we do not first see or hear or feel the sign we cannot interpret it.
The 3rd form of knowledge is called avadhi. It depends entirely upon the activity of the ego without the activity of the mind or the senses; and still it is knowledge limited in extent and content.
The 4th form of knowledge is manaḥparyava-jñāna or mindknowing.
The 5th form of knowledge is kevala or omniscience, knowledge which has no limitations as to space or time or subject.
The first two forms of knowledge are the only two recognized in the West and it is in this stage that most people
are.
Memory, judgement, perception, etc., are the results of the removal of knowledge obscuring karmas.
Higher Forms of Knowledge do not replace the Lower Forms Also the avadhi form of knowledge, by which the soul
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