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SUPERNORMAL PERCEPTION
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manahpatyāya are: (i) the human beings in the karmabhūmi must have fully developed sense organs and a fully developed personality. They must be paryāpta; (ii) they must possess the right attitude, (samyagdrsti). As a consequence, they must be free from passion; (iii) they must be selfcontrolled and they must be possessed of rddhi, extraordinary powers.
Thus, telepathic cognition is not possible for all beings. Only human beings can acquire it. It is conditioned by a strict physical and mental discipline. The person possessing it must necessarily be a hermit, or homeless ascetic. His character must be of a high type. The discipline and the occult powers attainable by the yogis mentioned in the Patañjali Yoga are analogous to the qualifications of human beings possessing manahparyāya. But Siddhasena Divākara says that lower organisms possessing two or more sense organs are also found to strive by means of attraction or repulsion; therefore, they are possessed of mind. It would, hence, be proper to extend the scope of manahparyāya to such lower organisms. It would be improper to postulate manahparyāya as a separate category of knowledge.42 In this connection, we may refer to modern psychical research in telepathy described by Rhine Rhine says that it is possible to find instances of the possibility of such perceptions in the case of lower animals, especially the higher vertebrates. Several experiments have been carried out in this connection and several instances have been quoted.43 But the traditional Jaina view does not accept the possibility of manaḥparyāya in the case of the lower animals. It restricts the scope of such cognition to human beings.
Objects of Cognition in Manahparyāya
Although there is among the Jainas, general agreement on the nature of manahparyāya, the Jaina philosophers are not agreed regarding the objects of the cognition possible in this experience. Various views have been presented. Jinabhadra states that one who possesses manahparyāya perceives the states of mind of others directly. But external objects thought of by the minds of others are only indirectly cognized through inference.44 Hemacandra, commenting on the statement of Jinabhadra, says that a man may think of a material object as well as of a non-material object. But it is impossible to perceive a non-material object directly except by one who is omniscient. Therefore, one who is possessed of manahparyāya, telepathic cognition, knows external objects thought of by others only indirectly, by means of inference.45 The function of telepathy is restricted to perceiving mental states, like thoughts and ideas, of others. External objects are the content of these mental
42 Niscayadvātrimtika, 17. 43 Rhine (J. B.): Extra-sensory Perception, p, 220. 44 Viseşāvøyakabhāsya, 814. 45 Commentary on Višeşāvasyakabhäsya, 814.
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