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Jaina Logic & Epistemology
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therefore, the stage of first awareness, the threshold of awareness. It is the physiological stimulus condition of awareness and it gradually gives the sensation, and that is the arthavagraha. Arthavagraha is the stage of sensation where there is experience of "that" but still we do not know what it is. In the Visesavas yaka. bhasya there is the discussion regarding the nature of arthavagraha.54 In the Nandisutra there is a statement that in this stage we are aware of the sound or colour but we do not cognise the nature of the sound or colour.55 On the basis of such a distinction of the two stages of avagraha it is said that vyañjanavagraha lasts for indefinite moments, gradually proceeding towards the level of consciousness. 56
Iha is striving for determinate and specific cognition. It is a tendency towards cognising the specific feature of the object. I ha has been translated as 'speculation'. But it would be more appropriate to use the phrase "associative integration'.87 Cognition of objects in empirical experience is not complete with mere awareness i ha introduces integrative process with the help of mental activity. It is striving of the mind towards coherence and integration of the sense impression. Thus iha is a stage in the formation of perceptual experience
Next comes the stage of avaya. From the associative integration (iha), we come to the stage of interpretation. In this stage the sensations are interpreted and meaning assigned to the sensation. That would be perception. Nandi sūtra gives the following synonyms for avaya : 1) Qvartanata, Pratyavartanata, buddhi and vijñana, 58 Some Jaina logicians say that dvd ya has only a negative function. In this stage of experience there is merely the exclusion of non-existing quality. Now we need the cohering and retaining factors. That is provided by dharana. Nandi sūtra defines dharana as the act of retaining the perceptual judgement (avaya) for a number of instants or innumerable instants.69 Nandisātra 60 gives Sthapana and Pratistņa as synonyms of dharana. Dharana has been described with reference to two functions, the negative and the positive functions. Negative function implies retention as a factor of the absence of forgetting. It is retaining the impression received from sense organs. The positive function consists of the stage for recollection. Retention is the basis for recollection.
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