Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

Author(s): S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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56: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
presuppose a totality in the sense of all-inclusiveness, as the term sakalādeśa may suggest, but it must be the totality of a system. When we aim at an isolation of one or the other aspects from a system presented as an object, we get nayaknowledge; and when such isolation is not aimed at we get pramāņa knowledge. Kevljñāna comprehends the entire system of the universe, and the lower and smaller systems are comprehended by other pramāņas. The totality of a system should not be taken to mean the aggregate of its constituents. So also an aggregate of partial comprehensions cannot yield a pramāṇa. Rajamalla opposes the view that a pramāņa is an aggregate of the nayas. “A pramāņa has a different taste (essence) from the aggregate of nayas." "Negation in preceded by affirmation, and affirmation by negation. The knowledge which comprehends the union of the two is the pramāṇa" Joachim also maintains a similar view. He observes: "To treat science as a sum, aggregate, collection or class of single truths, each of which is what it is in its singleness and remains unchanged in the collection is utterly inadequate as a theory of knowledge".3 A pramāņas may include the nayas but is not identified with them, it always transcends the aggregate of the nayas. The totality of the nayas gains in essence which is lost when a surgical analysis of a pramāņa is effected. This special essence is suggested by assigning a different taste (rasa) to the pramāṇa. In the bits of sensuous knowledge the entity presented to the senses is comprehended as a whole and no isolation is meant therein, so this type of knowledge is classed with the pramāņas.
Relation Between the Naya and the Pramāna Types of Knowledge
If reality is not completely comprehended by the naya and also by some of the pramāņas the question of their
1. Rājamalla: Pañcädhyāyi, verse 675
2. Ibid, verse 665
3. Joachim: Nature of Truth,
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