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THE SENSE ORGANS AND THE SENSES
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if the wind is favourable and they are not obstructed. It grasps the sound waves even inside the ear. It is subtler than the sense organ of smell. It receives sound waves of various types, but it grasps only those which are relevant, as the bird picks out milk from a mixture of milk and water---the haṁsaksira.
Modern science recognizes that vision is the most important of all the senses. Blind people learn to depend on other senses to a remarkable degree. But for the loss of vision there is never anything like complete compensation. We rely on vision for protection, for equilibration, for co-ordination, for creation and pleasure. Next comes audition. Then we have olfaction and other sense functions. Audition ranks, perhaps, almost with vision. In the case of man, olfactory acuity has been allowed to be atrophied. The lower animals are far more dependent on their acute sense of smell than we are. Actual survival hinges on the animal's ability to find food and to avoid enemies. To some extent this was also the case with primitive man. But as man advanced, the olfactory sense began to get restricted in its use. Modern men use the olfactory sense for pleasure. Audition, like vision, is important for protection, because this sense warns us of danger in the environment. It also adds to our enjoyment. Therefore, it is considered as a vital sense.31
We may refer to the functions of the senses on the different animal levels. According to the Jainas there are gradations of animal life. At the lowest level, there are the one-sensed organisms called ekendriyas. They may be earth-bodied, water-bodied, air-bodied and fire-bodied. This level includes the vegetable kingdom. Many of the organisms are minute or even microscopic. They pervade the whole world. They are described as sakala loka vyāpinah. Some of them may be gross-bodied, and visible. These organisms possess only the sense of touch. No other sensory discrimination has been developed in them. The amoeba, the paramecium and other protozoan animals, similarly coelenterates and even flat-worms, may be included in this list, although the Jainas have not mentioned any specific animal species in this category. Modern comparative psychologists are not agreed on the question of the sensory experience of lower animals. Some maintain that they have a chemical sense. But some scientists like Schaeffer think the reaction of these animals may be due to mechanical stimulation. Even in food-seeking the sense of touch is predominant. Romanes ascribed a certian amount of discrimination among mechanical stimuli to the sea-anemones. In the case of planaria maculata, a species of flatworms, Bardeen has suggested that auricular appendages on the animal's
31 Also refer to Physiology of Man by Langley and Cheraskin, Chapter—Special
Funotions.
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