________________
20
TATTVĀRTHA SUTRA
Unlike samyak-darśana, samyak-jñāna has not been defined through a special aphorism. That is because when the definition of samyak-darśana is once known that of samyak-jñāna can be known as a matter of course. To wit, it can well happen that a particular soul is devoid of samyak-darsana but it never happens that it is devoid of cognition; thus this soul must possess some cognition or other and the same is turned into right-cognition or samyak-jñāna as soon as samyak-darśana makes its appearance. So the only difference between the cognition of the form of samyakjñāna and that of the form of not-samyak-jñāna is that the former is accompanied by samyaktva while the latter is devoid of the same—that is, the latter is accompanied by mithyātva (i.e. the quality opposed to samyaktva.)
Question : What is it that lends so much competence to samyaktva that so long as it is absent all cognition, howsoever extensive and howsoever free from illusion, is called false cognition or not-samyak-jñāna, while on the other hand, as soon as it appears there even that cognition which is somewhat indistinct and illusory is called samyak-jñāna ?
Answer: The present treatize is concerned with matters spiritual. And so the discrimination between samyak-jñāna and not-samyak-jñāna is made here from a spiritual view-point and not, as in the science of logic or epistemology, from an objective viewpoint. Thus in the science of logic only that cognition is called samyak-jñāna or pramāṇa whose object is true to the concerned factual situation while that cognition is called notsamyak-jñāna or pseudo-pramāṇa whose object is false to the same. On the other hand, in the present treatize concerned with matters spiritual the distinction between samyak-jñāna and notsamyak-jñāna that is proposed by the science of logic is no doubt admitted but is treated as secondary. For in such a treatize that distinction is primary according to which samyak-jñāna is the cognition that is conducive to spiritual upgrading or development while not-samyak-jñāna is the cognition that is conducive to an increment in worldly entanglement or spiritual degradation. Thus it is just possible that owing to a lack of necessary means a
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
