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The Soul and Consciousness :: 125
a transcendence. Akalanka accepts the truth of the aforesaid contention but reduces the previous peception to the status of sensuous knowledge in a derivative sense. Hence as regards the identity of the śruta or perception we can affirm that it is a knowledge constructed on or inferred from another knowledge. So far we were concerned with the sensuous and perceptual types of knowledge, but Jainism recognizes three more types under the genus direct knowledge.? Now the problem is whether transcendence over direct types of knowledge is possible or not. Perceptual knowledge is possible only where there is a field for transcendence. As kevalajñāna or the perfect knowledge leaves nothing unknown, no advancement over it is possible. Hence we cannot think of perceptual knowledge built on the perfect knowledge. The other two types of knowledge, i.e., the avadhi or clairvoyance and the manahparyaya or telepathy allow scope for further extension, and so it seems possible that perceptual knowledge can be built upon them. It is possible that the Jaina writers would have taken the aforesaid two types of direct knowledge as sensuous knowledge though in a devivative sense, as they have done in case of perceptual knowledge itself. Where the direct knowledge does not penetrate, the perceptual knowledge can do so but in an indirect way. In other words the facts apprehended by direct knowledge may be utilized as a ground for further infrences and constructions.
Generally the process of our knowing is constituted of the sensuous and the perceptual elements. Haribhadra observes: “The mati and śruta are found in the same self and they penetrate each other."3 Akalanka also maintains: “Mati and śruta do not leave each other. Where there is mati there is sruta and vice versa.”4 The science of psychology tells us that our sensations are every moment supplemented by our
1. Akalanka: Rājavārtika, 1.20.10 2. Umāsvāti: Tattvärthasūtra, 1.9. 3. Nāndisūtra (com. by Haribhadra), p. 57 4. Akalanka: Rajavartika, p. 47
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