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THE JAINA THEORY OF SENSE PERCEPTION
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pot and drops of water, mallaka drstānta. It gives a description of the stage of vyanjanāvagraha. A clay pot is to be filled with water. In the beginning, when a person pours out one drop of water, it is absorbed and there is no sign of existence of water. He goes on pouring drops of water and at a certain stage a drop of water will be visible. Then the water begins to accumulate, We may call this stage when the water becomes visible the 'threshold of saturation'. The drops of water below the threshold are all absorbed. Similarly, a person who is asleep receives sound stimulation successively for sometime. The sound atoms reach the ears. Innumerable instances have to occur before the ears become full of sound atoms. At a particular stage, the person becomes conscious of the sound. So far he was not aware of the sound although the auditory stimulation was pouring in. We may call this stage of first awareness 'the threshold of awareness'. The sensation of sound starts the moment the threshold is crossed and we become aware of the sound. That is the immediate experience of sound, arthāvagraha. So far there was no awareness of the sound although the conditions of stimulation for such awareness were operating below the threshold.53 The stimulus was pouring in constantly although no awareness of sound was possible up to a particular stage. Such a preparatory stage of sensation presents physiological and stimulus conditions for the sensational stage. It is indeterminate and undefined. “In fact, it is sometimes contended that it is not. consciousness at all. Yaśovijaya says that vyañjanāvagraha is cognition only in name. It is only a condition of arthāvagraha, which is cognition.54 However, the presence of consciousness in vyanjanāvagraha may be admitted, although it is not explicit because of its undeveloped existence,55 In this, the awareness is implicit. It may be referred to as potentiality of awareness. In this sense vyañjanāvagraha is not totally unconscious, because it is this that develops into consciousness.56 It is not possible for man to be clearly aware of all the contents in his mind even when he is wide awake. Countless points of consciousness emerge in the course of a single day. Vyañjanāvagraha has been just described as implicit awareness, the physiological and stimulus condition of awareness. It gradually develops into awareness and gives the sensation. It is very often described as 'contact awareness'. However, it would not be appropriate to call this awareness' although there is the stimulation flowing in. Awareness gradually emerges later, through the accumulation of stimulation. It is merely potentiality of awareness, or implicit awareness.
Such a stage of potential conciousness may be compared to the unconcious experiences described by Stout. The question of
53 Nandisutra, 34. Mallaka drstānta. 54 Jaina Tarka Bhāsā, p. 3. 55 Visesävasyakabhäsya, 196. 56 Višeşāvasyakabhāsya, 196.
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