Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 115

VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. I
But we may draw the attention of a critical scholar to this epistemological problem by trotting out the question from the point of view of the result. If all valid cognition culminates in the elimination of ignorance, that is, previous absence of knowledge of the object, the difference between the Jaina on the one hand and the Buddhist, Vedantist and Mimamsaka on the other becomes too tenuous. Besides past writers of logic who preceded Hemacandra added this adjectival clause to the definition of valid knowledge.
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Now we should consider the case of transcendent intuition of the enlightened saint. As we have observed before, the Jaina philosopher believes that all knowledge is the knowledge of the self and its properties. The perceptual knowledge of jar is not a new experience. It has been existent in the soul of the subject. The operation of sense-organs or conditions of other species of valid cognition only help to suspend or eliminate the ignorance imposed by karmic veils, and it is rather a question of discovery and not acquisition of a new piece of knowledge. The Jaina position resembles the Vedantist's theory of knowledge subject to the fundamental difference of the Realist from the Vedantist that even the objects of empirical knowledge are real according to the Jaina and unreal phenomena according to the Vedantic Monists. Whatever be the status of the phenomenal objects, there is perfect agreement between the Jaina and the Vedantist that the result of all valid cognition is the elimination of ignorance. As for the transcendent intuition of the omniscient Arhat saint it is the result of the total elimination of all karmic veils which hide the intrinsic light of the soul, and when such a consummation is reached the entire gamut of reality, be it small and great, gross and subtle, near and distant, all become revealed in one sweep. Nothing remains unknown to such perfect intuition.
We have already alluded to the controversy on the possibility of omniscience. Whether it be an article of faith or a well-reasoned out conclusion, the possibility of infinite knowledge cannot be denied on a priori grounds. The irrepressible quest of knowledge on the part of scientists and philosophers is inspired by the tacit or explicit presupposition of this possibility. It is the ideal and final consummation of all enquiries into truth. Now an interesting question crops up. Granted that omniscience is realizable by a person, but what will be the result of it and its benefit to the possessor of such knowledge? As we have said, the content of such intuition is the entire gamut of reality and truth. The enlightened saint has come to the journey's end and comes to have knowledge ne plus ultra. As he is free from