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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
The kevalajñāna (omniscience) is not limited. Its capacity is infinite. It cognises everything including the substance and its modes. The omniscient knows everything in the moment of its experience, in the aspect of its universality. Then he cognises the diversity. This is the procedure of kevalajñāna and kevaladarśana.
The chadmastha who has reached the tenth guṇasthāna does not grasp everything in one moment of experience. He cognises the subtle nature of the cognition and after numerous moments he grasps the universality that is in the substance. The universality and the diversity of the object are progressively experienced. Jñana cognises particularities and is analytic, while darśana experiences the universality and is synthetic. Knowing the generality first and then cognising the diversity would involve the process of darsana and jñāna.
KNOWLEDGE AND THE AFFECTIVE STATES (VEDANA)
Of the five sense-organs, the sense organs of touch, taste and smell are sensory. They cognise the objects and experience the senses of touch, taste and smell, but the sense-organs of sight and hearing are instruments of cognition only, because they cognise the objects, but do not experience the objects as there is no direct contact with them.
We experience the external objects through the sense-organs, but the process of experience is not the same in all the sense-organs. The sense-organ of sight has a greater capacity of cognity of cognition. But it cognises the object without touching it. The sense-organ of hearing is less in its capacity to experience, because it can cognise the sounds which touch it, or come in contact. The senses-organs of touch, taste and sound are less in their capacity of experience as compared with the other two. Because they can experience the object when they come in direct contact with the objects and therefore they can cognise the objects and experience the experiences. But in the case of the eyes and the ears there is no direct contact with the objects of experience. Therefore, they can only get knowledge, but they do not directly get the experience. In the case of the mind it can have both knowledge and experience, although it does not come in direct contact with the object. This is because the mind transforms itself
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