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specific knowledge-obscuring karma, meditation, and the efficient functioning of the right part of the brain.
The memory of an individual's past lives is a form of sensory knowledge, a manifestation of exceptional mental capacity. It can be explained on the basis of the extraordinary shedding of sensory knowledge-obscuring karma at an early age and some discursive factors to catalyse the awakening of memory. This does not happen to everyone because everyone does not shed the specific sensory knowledge-obscuring karma (Arun vijay 1991: p.219). Hypnotism also involves past memories under special circumstances and is a form of sensory knowledge. The process in the acquisition of sensory knowledge has four stages:
Cognition ->Apprehension ->Speculation ->Inference ->Retention.
Apprehension (avagraha): This is the immediate sensory experience arising out of initial sense-object contact. It is the stage of something' as an object; it is indeterminate perception, mere awareness and mere cognition without any knowledge of the specific nature of the object. It may be indistinct or distinct: indistinct apprehension is a physiological stimulus of sensation that results in the second phase of distinct apprehension, an awareness of an experience.
Speculation (ihaa): This stage is the formation of perceptual knowledge and specific cognition and introduces an integrative process involving mental activity, which creates coherence and integration of the sense data. It occurs not only before the inferential stage but also subsequently, if the cogniser continues thinking and is desirous to explore the subject further. It is mental contemplation, analyses data supplied by the senses and it is not universal. Certain apprehensions disappear completely after the first sensation, without leaving any impression, while others impress upon the mind - either favourably or unfavourably for inference.
Inference (avaya): From the associative integration, we arrive at the stage of interpretation where the sensations are explained and meaning is assigned to them, the result is perception. It is a stage of determinate knowledge specifying the object in full details after due verification. Despite arriving at a decision, this stage is non-verbal.
Retention (dharana): This stage consists of the record of perceptual judgement already arrived at or acquired over a longer period. It makes a subconscious impression that can be recovered by the memory and may be: Non-deviation (avicyavana) is concentration on the same point over a long period of time without any diversion; Impression (vaasanaa) is the concentration on a subject over a long period, which becomes memorised, it is the psychic condition of post-retention; Recollection (smriti) is the mental recovery of past impressions and arises generally through sensation of the recurring object.
The cognitive process can be realised through all the senses, depending upon the nature of the object being perceived. In dreaming, where the external senses are inactive, the process is identical. The sensory knowledge of a person with spurious faith is distorted sensory experience and is known as false sensory knowledge. All living beings do not have identical quality of sensory knowledge, as it depends upon the way of experience and the shedding of sensory-knowledge-obscuring karma.
Classification of Sensory Knowledge: The five senses and the mind acquire sensory knowledge through apprehension, speculation, inference and retention. Each of the four types of sensory knowledge is obtained through the five senses and the mind
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