Some Problems in Jaina Psychology

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

Page 82

THE SENSE ORGANS AND THE SENSES
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amoeba can 'sense' a beam of light 20 microns to 120 microns distant moving towards it. Many jellyfish react to light. Romanes says that they possess a visual sense; but there is no positive evidence. Some of the molluscan species possess eyes of some degree of development, although their reaction to light is very slow. The crustacea are provided with a peculiar visual organ, the compound eye; and the chief fuction of this eye seems to be that of responding to shadows and movements. As we go higher up in the animal scale, we find that the structure of the eye becomes more complex, and the compound eye gives rise to the simple eye with cones and rods. The vertebrates, like fish (matsya), crocodile (makara), and man are five-sensed organisms. Those possessing the five senses are divided into two groups: (i) those possessing mind and intelligence; these are called saṁjñīnah; (ii) those who do not possess mind and intelligence, asarjñīnah. It is not possible to say whether the Jainas showed a qualitative distinction between sense and reason. However, they maintained that among the five sensed animals only some of them are sarjñins. Human beings belong to this class. They possess specific mental states like memory, imagination and intellection. 34 The asaṁjñins do not possess such mental qualities. A further psychological analysis of this group is made by the Jainas. They say that the samjñins are further divided into those which are incomplete and those which are complete. Incomplete species are those in which the sense capacities do not work freely and are deficient in expression. Such deficiency may be due to a defect of structure in the sense organ or in the mental capacity to grasp the sense experience. This, in brief, is the classification of animals having sense organs. Going higher in the scale of life, there are those beings who are not fettered with the sense organs. They are called anindriyas. They get pure and unalloyed experience, because sense experience, according to the Jainas, is experience at a lower level. It is not direct experience of the soul. It comes through the sense organs, which are a limitation. Beings without sense organs come nearer to the realization of the highest experience. Some of them are complete in mental equipment and capacity. They are perfect beings. They are siddhas. Thus, from the psychological analysis of the development of animal life we go to the metaphysical nature of the soul found in the disembodied being. The embodiment of the soul is a hindrance to the attainment of pure experience. Pure experience is possible by removing the barrier of the senses. The present stage of psychology cannot explain such a phenomenon as super-sensible experience, although it is possible to approach this problem through studies in para-psychology
34 Abhidhānraājendra, Vol. II. p. 568.
Samjñino samjñinasca tatra sanjñānam sam jñā cetanavadbhāvināvasyambhävaparyti. locanam sā vidyate sam jñinah višistasmaraņādirūpa manovijñānabhājaityarthah.