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Significance of Śrutajñāna
In the Vedic tradition four Vedas are also named as 'śruti' and in the Jain tradition, scriptural knowledge is generally named as śruta or śrutajñāna. But when we study Jain texts, we find that all living beings, even one sensed to four sensed beings not having auditory organ also bear śruajñāna. They bear its perverted form as śruta-ajñāna. Here a doubt arises, how one sensed living beings are supposed to have scriptural knowledge, even when they cannot hear and understand scripts containing sermons of enlightened persons.? Which kind of śrutajñāna exists therein? This paper proposes to discuss this problem and tries to find out a solution from the original Jaina texts. Another point, to be discussed in this article is to differentiate śrutajñāna from matijñāna, which is also found in every living being and occurs before śrutajñāna. Third point to be discussed herein is to find out the importance of śrutajñāna for salvation or liberation from sufferings and sorrows. On the basis of Jaina canonical literature fourteen and twenty types of śrutajñāna are also to be mentioned.
Jaina tradition propounds five types of knowledge:- 1Sensuous knowledge (matijñāna), 2. Scriptural knowledge or knowledge of the self (srutajñāna), 3. Clairvoyance or visual intuition (avadhijñāna), 4. Intuition of mental modes (manaḥparyāya-jñāna), 5. Pure and perfect knowledge (kevalajñāna). Here, we will discuss only the concept of śrutajñāna.
