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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
Indra has a reference to activity. It means that the ātman has the natural characteristic of activity, but due to the accretion of karma the self cannot get direct knowledge. Therefore, it requires a medium and that medium is the sepse-organ. Therefore, that through the medium or which the self gets the knowledge is called indriya. There are five sense-organs, the sense organ of touch (sparsa), the sense-organ of taste, the sense-organ of smell, the sense-organ of sight, the senseorgan of hearing. The five sense-organs have the five senses : Senses of touch, taste, smell, form and hearing. Therefore, these senseorgans have been considered as receptive of the stimulation. They are the means through which experiences are the possible.
1. The sense-organ receiving the stimulation of touch-the sense of touch.
2. The sense-organ of taste has sense of taste. 3. The sense-organ of smell has the sense of smell. 4. The sense-organ of form has (rupa) the sense of sight (eyes). 5. The sense organ of receiving sound has the sense of hearing.
Every sense-organ has two forms (1) physical sense-organ (dravendriya) and (2) psychic sense-organs (bhāvendriya).3 The dravyendriya is expressed in the form of a sense-organ with its basic meterial form like the retina in the eyes or the ear for hearing.
The physical part of the sense-organs, therefore, is called Dravyendriya and the psychic part of the sense is bhāvyedriya. The physical part of the sense-orgnas is created by the rise of the corresponding nāmakarına, the psychical part of the sense-organ is caused by the destruction and subsidence of knowledge obscuring karma (jñānāvarniya karma) Dravyendriya is again sub-divided into (1) nirvștti and
1 (a) Sarvärthasiddhi 1, 14, 102, 3 Bhāratiya Jñänapitha.
(b) Rajavārtika 1, 14, 1, 59 Bhāratiya Jñānapitha. (c) Dhavalā 1, 1, 1, 33; 7, 2, 6, 7.
(d) Jainendra Siddhāntakoşa Part I, p. 316. 2 Pramāņamīmāṁsā 1, 2, 21-23. 3 Sarvārthasiddhi 2, 16, 179.
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