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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
meditation. Similarly, Neo-Naiyāyikas make a two-fold distinction between yukta pratyaksa and vyanjana pratyaksa. In the latter case, the individual getting the perception is still endeavouring to attain union with the supreme being. Praśāstapāda mentions ārsa-jñāna as a kind of yogic perception. It is an intuitive apprehension of all objects, past, present and future, and also of dharma owing to the contact of manas with the self and a peculiar power, dharma, born of austerities. It is sometimes said that arsa-jñāna and yogic perception are different, because ārsa-jñāna is produced by the practice of austerities, while yogic perception is produced by meditation. However, both are supersensuous in nature,
But the Mīmārsakas and the Jainas do not accept the possibility of yogic perception because it cannot be either sensuous or nonsensuous. It cannot be sensuous, as it is not produced by contact of the sense organs and the manas. Sense organs cannot come into contact with the past, the future and the distant object. Nor can yogic perception be produced by the mind alone, as the mind, without the help of the senseorgans, is capable of producing only mental states like pleasure and pain. It is not also possible to maintain that the external sense organs can apprehend objects, without coming into contact through the powers of medicine, incantation and the practice of austertities, because the senses are limited in their sphere. They cannot transcend their natural limitations even when they attain the highest degree of perfection by intense meditation. Therefore, the Mimānisaks say, yogic perception cannot be sensuous, as sensuous knowledge cannot apprehend past, future and distant objects. Similarly, if yogic perception can perceive what was apprehended in the past, it would be mere recall or a form of memory. But if it cognizes more than what was perceived in the past, it is illusory, as it apprehends something which has no real existence. If yogic perception were perceptual in character, it could not transgress the general conditions of perception, as it must be produced by the contact of the sense organs with the object.
The Jainas also do not accept the possibility of yogic perception as presented by the Nyäya Vaiseșika Schools. The Jainas say that sense organs are limited in their sphere and cannot be freed from their inherent limitations. Even the sense organs of the yogis cannot apprebend supersensible objects like atoms. The peculiar power of dharma born of meditation cannot be of any use to the sense organs in directly apprehending supersensible objects. Dharma can neither increase the capacity of the sense-organs, nor can it merely assist the sense organs in their function of apprehending supersensible objects. Sense organs in themselves cannot apprehend supersensible objects.
8 Prasastapādabhāsya, p. 187.
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