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SAMAYASARA
to associated conditions. An ordinary living being has access to the environmental objects through sense perception. Sense perception is through the medium of sense organs of the body. Since they are parts of the body, physical and physiological the sensory organs are distinctly material in nature and thus distinct from the nature of Jiva or the Atma Sense perception therefore according to Jaina epistemology is the knowledge which the Atman acquires of the environment through the intermediary of material sense organs Since it is though the intermediary of physiological organs of sense, perceptual knowledge cannot be considered to be immediate access of the soul to the environment objects Hence sense perception becomes mediate and not immediate Direct contact of Jiva with the object is what is called pratyaksha by the Jaina thinkers. Since the sense perception is conditioned by physical sense organs, it is not immediate Sense perception becomes Paroksha, mediate knowledge, according to Jaina epistemology In this respect thc terms Pratyaksha and Paroksha are completely reversed in Jaina epistemology What is directly in contact with the soul is pratyaksha and what the soul acquires through intermediary agent is paroksha. Hence the sense perception is a paroksha knowledge and not pratyaksha as described by the other Indian systems. But Jaina epistemology recognises two kinds of supersensory knowledge, (1) awareness of objects in distant places and times and (2) contact with thought present in other individual beings. The former is called Avadhignana which may be translated as clairvoyant knowledge and the latter is called Manaparyaya Jnana which means telepathy in the language of modern psychology. These two features of supersensory knowledge, Avadhi and Mana paryayajnana, clairvoyance and telepathy are recognised to be knowledge of immediate type or pratyaksha since they do not depend upon any intermediary of sensory organs. Of course, the real pratyaksha knowledge is the supreme knowledge of Paramatma when he gets rid of karmic bondage and when he attains Kevalagnana the knowledge par excellence. This knowledge is infinite in nature and unlimited by spatial and temporal conditions. In this belief that the Jivatma is capable of becoming
