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From earliest times, omniscience has been a question of faith or dogma rather than reason. Since the development of logic or the intellectual method of analysis, many dogmas have been made credible. The Jains have examined their faith logically. Jain logicians have advocated that arguments be classified into four categories: arguments concerning the nature of omniscience, arguments concerning the teachings of the tirthankaras, arguments concerning the organs of knowledge; and others.
Omniscience is the highest perceptual potentiality of living beings. The concept of the inherent limitation of physical or mental perception is based on the imperfect understanding and observation of the Realities. This limitation is overridden, in many cases, through the triple path of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct.
Every soul possesses a natural state of pure knowledge or omniscience. It is not manifested in ordinary worldly beings, as it is obscured by knowledge-obscuring karma. The knowledge of individuals can increase from partial to the whole, depending upon their efforts to shed this karma.
Samantabhadra describes the qualities of the tirthankaras in terms of five attributes: they must be devoid of physical and psychic defects; they must be omniscient; they must be able to impart scriptural teachings; they must be supreme souls - supremely detached, pure and beneficent to all; and they must be able to guide living beings towards the threefold path of Right Faith, Right knowledge and Right Conduct.
The valid sources of knowledge such as inference, perception and clairvoyance do not give us knowledge of objects in all modes; omniscience does give. Omniscience can be validated through almost all the valid sources of knowledge.
Many facts that have been established by modern science are already written in Jain scriptures, which are believed to be the teachings of the omniscients. Examples include knowledge of the nature of atoms and their power, the presence of sound waves, life in plants and vegetables.
Mechanism of Omniscience: We have described earlier the function and attributes of substances such as existence, functionality, changeability, knowability, individuality, spatiality, and the common and their special stationary wave motions. Let us now discuss the mechanism of the omniscience.
The soul and matter have special stationary wave motions, which give consciousness and invisibility to the soul and sensuality and visibility to matter. These special stationary wave motions adapt to modifications such as expansion, contraction and variation in shape, in a similar way to those of light waves. The special stationary wave motion spreads out from a central point to all parts of the substance similar to expanding light waves.
The omniscient soul is free from the obscuring karma of faith, knowledge, conduct and delusion. Hence its special stationary wave motion spreads evenly throughout all its space points. As a result of freedom from obscuring karma, the soul's surface becomes a mirror-like medium perfect for the reflection of images. The normal special stationary wave motion has full support of the soul's infinite energy. Its functions are to maintain the soul's perfect reflecting medium, and to generate normal disturbancefree energy waves (super energy wave motion) to help and to energise the soul's conscious activity.
The omniscient soul's super energy wave motion, assisted by the medium of motion, spreads in all directions throughout the universe, then recoils and returns
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