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116 :: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
actualized every moment and its actualization takes place by being conscious of something. Thus in Jaina philosophy we do not come across a consciousness having no objects. Mitchell states: “There is no experience that is experience of nothing; when conscious I am always conscious of a definite something or other and this is called the content of my experience or consciousness." The objectless consciousness is like holding a piece of matter as having colour which is neither white, red, black nor of any other shade. B. Russell rightly remarks: “There can be no consciousness which is not of something." W.T. Stace also thinks, “Pure awareness is not an activity. It is purely passive; and the Jaina dynamism of substance cannot accept passivity in case of any of the attributes. Hence we can conclude that the conception of objectless consciousness is untenable.
Meaning of Knowledge
“Knowledge actually exists only as a number of psychic events in the minds of the knower. Knowledge is a manifestation of the soul with respect to its comprehending capacity. The cognitive function of the soul is determined by its knowledge attribute. It is a prehension of the objects with their details. A prehension of the details of objects is known as the 'sākāragrahaņa' which is generally taken to signify the cognitive process. The term ākāra, when applied to matter, certainly implies spatiality; but, when applied to knowledge, it can only mean the distinctive nature of the flow of the knowledge-attribute. The area of a field is spatial, but the knowledge of this area can never be called spatial. Samantabhadra states: that the knowledge of Lord Mahavira behaves like a mirror with the objects of the three
1. Mitchell: Structure and Growth of Mind, p. 11 2. B. Russell: Analysis of Mind, p. 289 3. W.T. Stace: Theory of Knowledge and Existence, p. 81 4. Ibid., p. 14
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