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Concept of Consciousness In Jainism
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Every soul has an essential attribute of in-articulate cognition and articulate cognition. Both of these cognitive attributes are manifested as consciousness in a sequence of inarticulate and articulate manner. The scientists have explored the system of knowing through sense organs and their link with the nervous system and brain, but they do not have reached up to the source of consciousness.
There are four stages of knowing the material objects through sense organs i.e. avagraha, Tha, avāya and dhāraņā. Avagraha is a primary knowledge in which an object is known without its specific properties. Īha is a knowledge having inclination to know the object with its property, and the ascertaining knowledge about the object is called avāya. When that avāya knowledge goes into retention, then it is named as dhāraņā knowledge. These four stages are very important in learning process. Why children do not learn the lesson properly? Its answer is lying in the Jaina principle of learning through stages of matijñāna. This principle is useful in the educational psychology. This is a psychological science of learning that if a learning process is up to retention, then memory takes place. Without retention memory cannot take place. Consciousness as Prāņa
Prāņa (vitality) is another technical term in Jaina scriptures which shows consciousness in a living being. This 'prāņa' word has a different meaning from the meaning which is referred in Yoga philosophy. In Yoga philosophy prāņa word has been used for vital airs which are of five kinds- prāņa (air inhaled and exhaled), apāna (air goes out through anus), vyāna
