________________
(4x6-24). The four sense organs other than the eye and the mind have also an indistinct awareness of touch, taste, smell and hearing (vyanjanaavagraha), making 24+4=28 forms of cognitions. Each cognition may be single or multiple (2); may have one or more qualities (2); may be fast or slow (2); may be inferential or non-inferential (2); may be decisive or non-decisive (2) and may be certain or uncertain (2); thus a total of 12 further varieties. If the above twelve varieties are multiplied by the 28 earlier categories, the result is 336 possible cognition or varieties of sensory knowledge (Devendra Muni 1983: pp. 359-60).
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE
Every worldly being has a degree of sensory knowledge (mati jnaana) and scriptural knowledge (sruta jnaana). Scriptural knowledge is knowledge accompanied by expressions in words (through language), which have significant meaning. Sensory knowledge usually precedes scriptural knowledge, but may not accompany it. The scriptural knowledge could be due to two factors: external due to comprehension of sensory knowledge and internal due to the shedding of karmic particles obscuring sruta jnaana
In early aagamic literature scriptural knowledge has been defined as the knowledge obtained through primary canon (angapravista). Later on it has been accepted as knowledge acquired through the words, oral or written, of the omniscients, preceptors, or scholars and experts in such knowledge (angabaahya). The technical term sruta used for this form of knowledge means etymologically an object of audibility (i.e. oral sound, words and sentences), however, mere physical sound cannot be taken as a source of knowledge; it must have meaning and be capable of expression through words. The presence of a psychic sense, representing the potentiality of the above functions, also qualifies as a source for scriptural knowledge even in the absence of any physical sensation. That is why the Jains postulate the existence of some scriptural knowledge even in sensory deficient and one-sensed beings (such as plants), as they do possess psychic senses which serve as instruments and media for acquiring knowledge. How, otherwise, could they possess the instincts of food, fear, sleep and other desires such as attachment and aversion. The noted botanists Haldane and Wilkins (The Times, 10 September 1994) have experimentally observed faster and better plant growth in the presence of melodious sounds. They also detected reactions to hostility in plants, for example when a person approached a plant with the intention of cutting it; the plant's trembling was detected by sensitive monitoring instruments.
It is a fundamental Jain belief that knowledge exists for the sake of liberation. Our empirical knowledge might be quantitatively large, but it cannot be true knowledge, as it does not lead to liberation. Scriptural knowledge is the only true knowledge. The Jains have preserved their scriptures, which are highly valued as sources of acquiring Right Knowledge. They believe that in the absence of the omniscients, the scriptures are the only sources of reliable knowledge.
A person having the total mastery over the scriptural knowledge can know all the objects of the world, past, present and future. An earlier definition of scriptural knowledge reflected only to spiritual or superworldly knowledge; however, later it incorporated worldly knowledge. People who have attained scriptural knowledge are known as enlightened, scriptural omniscient (srutakevali) or 'attained' (aaptapurusa).
172
