Some Problems in Jaina Psychology

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Karnatak University Dharwar

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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
Thus, the Jainas believe that the auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactual sense organs are prāpyakāri, because the contact of the object with the sense organs is due to upaghāta, a gross and subtle physical contact. The touch of a blanket gives the experience of roughness, and contact with the sandal paste gives a sense of coolness. Particles of camphor come in contact with the olfactory sense organs and we experience a smell.29 Similarly, soft sounds give a pleasant experience. But in the case of the eye there is no contact between the sense organ and the object.
On the basis of the analysis of perception given in modern science it is not possible to say that the Jaina view of the aprāpyakāri nature of the visual sense organ is not understandable, because some kind of contact of the external object with the sense organ is necessary even in this experience. But it should be observed that light is only required to illuminate the object and not to serve as a medium between the eye and the object, for the eye can observe the object being itself untouched by the rays of light illumining the object.
However, the problem of the contact of the sense organ with the object was viewed differently by the ancient Indian philosophers. Their problem was to explain the possibility of cognition to the sense organ. The Jainas had a realistic approach, and they refused to believe that the sense organ goes out to meet the object.
C. D. Broad says that hearing is projective in its epistemological aspect, and is emanative in its physical aspect. We may say that sight is ostensibly prehensive and not projective in its epistemological aspect, but is emanative in its physical aspect. Touch is ostensibly prehensive in its epistemological aspect, and is non-emanative in its physical aspect.30
The Jaina analysis of the prāpyakāritva of the sense organ of hearing and the aprāpyakāritva of the sense organ of sight may be compared to the analysis given by Broad, although the epistemological and physical aspects of the problem were not clear to the Jainas in that early stage of knowledge.
Considering the capacity of the sense organs, the Jainas believe that the capacity of the eyes is greater. The eye perceives things like mountains, which are at a distance, and things which are very near, like the parts of the body. But it cannot see the dust in the eyelids. The capacity is limited, because it cannot see things which are beyond a particular limit, like the farthest and the nearest. The Vaiseșikas say that it is a defect of the eye. But the Jainas maintain that it is the nature, the svabhāva, of the sense organ. The auditory organ is of a similar nature. But in the case of the ear there is a special power. It grasps sound waves coming from as far as twelve yojanas
29 Karkasa kambala sparsa. Karpūra pudgala ghrāne. 30 Broad (C.D.): Religion, Philosophy and Psychical Research, p. 31.