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and so the successive order exhibited in the course of the emergence of the stream of cognition is also not the same in the case of them all. Thus this successive order is of two kinds-a slow one and a fast one.
TATTVĀRTHA SUTRA
In the slow order of succession the cognition concerned ensues as soon as the object concerned comes in contact with the appropriate sense-organ acting in its capacity as upakaranendriya1-this contact being technically called vyañjana.
However, in the beginning the degree of the cognition in question is so meagre that it does not allow even a general apprehension to the effect 'there is something here', but with the maturation of the sense-object contact in question there is an increment in this degree. After a while this contact-technically called vyañjana-grows so much mature that there takes place a general apprehension-technically called arthavagraha-to the effect 'there is something here'. Here the entire cognitive operation preceding arthāvagraha-an operation which is born of a vyañjana and which grows mature with the maturation of this vyañjana-is called vyañjanavagraha inasmuch as it needs a vyañjana for its production. This prolonged cognitive operation of the form of vyañjanavagraha, in spite of its ever growing maturation, is so meagre in strength that it does not allow even a general objective apprehension to the effect 'there is something here.' Hence it is called a most indistinct, a relatively indistinct, an indistinct cognition. And when this cognitive operation grows so much mature that it allows a general apprehension to the effect 'there is something here' then that very sector of cognition which allows this general apprehension is called arthāvagraha.
Really speaking, arthāvagraha is but the utmost mature sector of vyañjanavagraha itself, for the former too stands in need of a sense-object contact. Even then it is mentioned apart from vyañjanavagraha and is given the designation arthāvagraha because the cognizer concerned is in a position to pay attention to the type of objective apprehension made possible by this sector
1. For the details of this concept see Chapter 2, aphorism 17.
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