Book Title: Studies in Jainism
Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
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JAINISM: TS PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS
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fers to the ordinary process of sense experience, which is generally conditioned by perception through the senseorgans and the inferential knowledge based thereon. Śruta jñana is the knowledge revealed by the scripture, the scripture itself being revealed to the world by the Sarvajña. Avadhi jñana corresponds to what is known as clairvoyance. It is a kind of extra-sensory perception, not ordinarily available to all persons, though it is latent in everyone. Through the instrument of extra-sensory perception, one may actually see events taking place in a distant land or at a distant time. Manah-paryaya jñāna refers to the knowledge of thoughts in other minds. It has direct access to the mind of other persons, and this capacity arises only as a result of yoga or tapas. Kevala jñāna refers to the infinite knowledge which the soul attains as the result of complete liberation or mokṣa. These are the five kinds of jñāna which constitute the pramaņas (instruments of knowledge). Of these, the first two are described as parokṣa jñāna—knowledge derived through an intervening medium. The other three are called pratykṣa jñāna—knowledge derived through direct perception by the soul without any intervening medium.
It is the function of these pramāņas to reveal the nature of objects in reality. The external world revealed through these pramāṇas consists of real objects, and hence should not be dismissed as illusory. In this respect, the Jaina theory of knowledge rejects the theory of Maya of Advaitism, as well as the Buddhistic doctrine of illusoriness of the objective world. The function of jñāna is merely to reveal, on the one hand, the objective reality which is already existing, and also to reveal itself, on the other hand. Knowledge therefore is like a lamp, which, on account of its luminosity, reveals other objects as well as itself. The external objects so known are independent, inasmuch as they exist by themselves, and yet are related to knowledge as they are revealed by it. Similarly, the soul is both the subject and the object of knowledge in one. Inner experience reveals this nature of the soul, which is a cetana (conscious) entity.
The logical doctrine of Jaina philosophy forms the most
