________________
EXAMINATION OF THE 'PERSON OF SUPER-NORMAL VISION'. 1573
appears later on. And so far as the Consciousness of the Omniscient Person is concerned, things do not enter into it as appearing in a limited number of diverse forms, but everything that happens to be existent enters into it. Because the capacity of the Person is such that in becoming the substratum of the Cognition of all things, it is not trammelled in any way; specially as mental Cognition envisages all things. Thus then, there being no incongruity in the Consciousness of the Omniscient Person apprehending the forms of limitless things, -and any ordinary cognition that comes later on cannot apprehend things to the farthest limit,-how could there be any Cognition such as so many are the things'? And it would be only if such a Cognition were there, that there could be a limit or end to the number of things.
If, again, the representative Cognition appears in the form that 'there is nothing beyond what has actually appeared in consciousness', - even so, it would not be possible for the things to be so limited. Because if all that appeared in the non-conceptual Consciousness of the Omniscient Person appeared as limited in extent, then the representative Cognition following upon that might apprehend the things as so limited [Read 'antavattvam for 'anantatuam'), and this Cognition would deprive the things of their limitlessness. As a matter of fact, however, what appears in the Consciousness of the Omniscient Person appears actually as without limit, --because the capacity of the Omniscient Person has no limitations; consequently anything else that appears in consciousness must be limited; and it is only this that is apprehended by the representative Cognition; so that you have more clearly than ever established the limitlessness of things. Hence there is no force in what has been urged.
There are some people who hold the view that the whole Consciousness of the Mystic is devoid of objective basis, and resembles the true cream, whence, being in conformity with the real state of things, it is reliable. As against these people, there is much less room for the objection regarding things becoming limited. We have had enough of this —(3627)
There are some people who hold that there are Persons who become omniscient at will; under their opinion also, there is no incongruity in what has been said above. This is what is shown in the following: -
TEXTS (3628-3629).
WHATEVER HE WISHES TO KNOW HE COMES TO KNOW IT WITHOUT FAIL; -SUCH IS HIS POWER, AS HE HAS SHAKEN OFF ALL EVIL. HE KNOWS THINGS EITHER SIMULTANEOUSLY OR IN SUCCESSION, JUST AS HE WISHES; AND HAVING SECURED THE KNOWLEDGE OF ALL
THINGS, HE BECOMES THE LORD.-(3628-3629)
COMMENTARY.
The following Texts point out that there is no incongruity even under the view that the Lord's Cognition of things is successive :
53
