CRITIQUE OF KNOWLEDGE

 

Avaya:  From the stage of associative integration, Iha, we come to the stage of interpretation. Sensations are interpreted and a meaning assigned to the sensation. That would be perce-ption. Sensation is the first impression of something the meaning of which is not cognised. Perception is the interpretation of the sensation in which the meaning is known.  Avaya follows in that wake of Iha. In this stage we reach a determinate experience. The striving for a cognition of the specific nature of the object results in the definite perception of the object The avasyaraniryukti defines avaaya as determinate cognition.5 In the Sarvartha siddhi we get the description of avaya as the cognition of the true nature of the object due to the cognition of the particular charac-teristics.[88] Trattvarthasutra Bhasya describes avaya as the stage of ascertainment of the right and exclusion of the wrong.[89] Avaya may be compared to the apperception involved in perceptual experience.  Perception is a complex experience.  The older psychologists analyzed perception as involving apperception. Apperception is assimilating new experience to old experience.

 

Dharana: Retention, dharana, is the next stage in perceptual experience. The Nandisutra deines retention as the act of retaining a perceptual judgement for a number of instants or innumerable instants. According to Umasvati retelltion develops through three stages as i) the nature of the object is finally cognised, ii) the cognition so formed is retained, and iii) the object is recognized on future occasions,. The Avasyakaniryukti defines dhdrapa as retention.[90] Jinabhadra says that retention is the absence of the lapse of perceptual cognition. Like Umlasvati he also mentions three stages of retention as i) the absence of the lapse of percephial judgement. ii) the formation of the mental traces and iii) the recollection of the cognition on the future occasions.  In this decription the absence of the lapse. avicyuti, mental trace. vasana, and recollection smrti are three stages included in the conception of dharana.

 

Thus, some logicians make dhdrana a mere retention of perceptual experience; while some others would make it also a condition of recall of that experience at a future time.  Hemacandra recalls his view of retention as the condition of recall with the view as the absence of retention of the lapse mentioned in the-Visesavasyaka Bhasya. He says that retention is the absence of the lapse of perception. But it is included in the perceptual judgement avaya. That is why it has not been separately mentioned by him. Avaya when it continues for Some length of time may be called retention as the absence of the lapse of experience. It may also be said that absence of the lapse is also a condition of recall in the sense in which he defines Dharana. Mere perception without the absence of the lapse gives rise to recollection.  Perceptual judgements which are not attended by relective mental stage are almost on the level of unattended perception, like the touch of grass by a person in hurried motion. And such perceptions are not capable of giving rise to recollection.[91]

 

Hemacandra's description of Avaya and his analysis of Dharana comes nearer to the psychological analysis or parception especially of the structuralist school. Perception is a concrete experience in which sensations are organized and interpreted Mesniring is assigned to sensations. Without the factor of meaning, interpretation of the sense impressions perception would be impossible.

 

The Jainas have given an exhaustive description of the four stages of Avagraha, perceptual experience, so far discussed.  Each of them is of six types as they arise due to the five sense organs and due to mind. Again. VyanJanavagraha is of four types only.  Thus there would be twenty-eight forms of perceptual cognition.  Each of the twenty-eight forms again is of twelve types according to the nature of the object they can have. Therefore the Jainas have mentioned that there are three hundred and thirty-six types of sense experience, namely Matijnana or Abhinibodhikajnana. This elaborate classification has no psychological significance. Although it has logical and mathematical interest. The Jaina logicians were fond of presenting elaborate mathematical calculations.  This is found in their elaborate classification of Karma as given in the Gommata Sdra: Kartna Kdnda. Glasenapp in his 'Doctrine of Karma in Jainism' has given a detailed analysis of this division.  The same tendency must have inspired the Jaina logicians to give such an elaborate classification of Avagraha.

 

V. SUPER-SENSE EXPERIENCE: The problem of super-sensible experience is not new in Indian Psychology. In the process of self-realization, man acquires certain experiences and powers which; are not possible for the common with the normal function of the sense organs. All systems of Indian philosophy. except the Carvakas and the Mimamsas, accept the possibility of such experiences. Sridhara argues that by the force of constant meditation on the self, akasa and other supersensible objects, we acquire knowledge of them, because the varying grades of consciousness must reach the limit beyond which it cannot go. Jayanta Bhatta showed that we can develop different degrees of perception leading to Yogic perception which sees all objects past. future, remote etc.  He gives instances of cats which can see in darkness and the vultures from long distances. Yogis can see all objects, including the superserisible like dharma. Such is the nature of divine perception also with the difference that the divine perception is eternal, while the Yogic perception is acquired through the practice of meditation.

 

Prasastapada divides Yogic perception into i) yukta inecstatie condition; and ii) viyukta, of those who have fallen from the ecstatie state. In the state of ecstacy one can see ones own self, other selves, akdsa, time and atoms.  Those who are not in ecstacy can see the supersensible and hidden objects through a peculiar contact of the self, manas, sense organs and the objects. Naiyyayikas divide Yogic perception into: i) perception of those who have attained the union with the supreme Being; and ii) those who acquire it with some Yogic efforts. The former have constant perception.  Arsajnana as intuition of sages has also been recognized.

 

Vijnanabhiksu states that the Yogis can come into contact with distant objects by virtue of a power acquired through meditation.  This peculiar power of the mind consists in its all pervasiveness.  Through such powers under the influence of Dharmla, the Yogis can perceive objects in all times and places through the connection of the mind with prakrti.

 

In the Patanjala Yoga, mind is described as a continuous stream of functions flowing into five stages: i) ksipta, ii) mudha, iii) viksipta, occasionally steady iv) ekagra concentrated, and v) nirudha, withdrawn. In the fourth and the fifth stages mind is withdrawn from the objects and concentrated on one of the objects.  In the fourth the mind gets the conscious ecstasy (samprajnata-samadhi) and in the last there is the supra-conscious state of ecstasy (asamprajnata-samadhi). The concentration proceeds from the gross objects to the subtler. In the different stages o£ samprajnata samadhti the Yogi acquires miraculous powers (siddhis) like clairvoyance, telepathy. understanding the language of animals, memory of past lives and a host of other powers.  The Vedantins generally recognize two kinds of samddhi: sarn-prajfidta and asamprajnata while different distinctions have been made by the Yoga psychologists.

 

Among the Buddhists, Anuruddha divides consciousness into two levels: i) subliminal consciousness and ii) supraliminal consciousness, which is supernormal consciousness. The Yogi has to pass through three stages in the supraliminal consciousness : i) rupacitta, where he sees visible and material forms. Clairvoyance may be included in this form of experience. ii) arupacitta In this stage the Yogi sees things which are invisible and formless iii) In the final stage of lokottaracitta he reaches the stage of transcendental consciousness which is above the three world. This may be compared to omniscience, the bodhi. A monk has to go through the severe physical and mental discipline in order to pass through the different levels of consciousness. Concentration -of mind has to proceed through that of gross objects to highes level of concentration of the four noble truths In graded way.

 

According to the Jainas there are two levels of experience: pratyaksa which is pure experience of the soul without the help of the sense organs. Then, on the lower level, we have the empirical experience which is possible through the sense organs. It is no; really direct experience of the soul.  It is paroksa indirect experience, as the sense organs are impediments in the direct experience of the pure soul. It is also called samvyavahara pratyaksa, empirical experience. When the veil of Karma is removed, the soul in its pure form gets direct experience without the help of sense-organs.  These experiences are supersensuous experiences. They have been classified into: i) avadhi which is analogous to clairvoyance. ii) manahparyayatelepathy, and iii) kevala.  omniscience.

 

AVADHI: Avadhi is a form of supersensible perception In this, we apprehend objects which are beyond the reach of the -sense organs. However we perceive things in Avadhi which have form and shape. Things without form like the soul and dharma can not be perceived by Avadhi. This can be compared with clair-voyance. Due to the varying degrees of he destruction and subsidence of the karmic veil. the individual 1 can perceive supersensible objects in different degrees. The highest type of Avadhi can perceive all objects having form. The Jainas interpret the capacity of perception in Avadhi in terms of space and time. They  have developed a technique of mathematical calculation of the subtleties of time and space.  Regarding space Avsdhi can extend over a space occupied by innumerable pradesas of the size of the universe. With reference to time. it can perceive through innumerable points of time both past and future. Avadhi can perceive all the modes of the things according to the degree of intensity of perception. The lowest type of Avadhi can perceive an object occupying a very small fraction of space like the angula or finger-breadth. Regarding the capacity in terms of time. me-lowest type of Avadhi can last for only a short time like a second.  It cannot extend beyond a second.  Similarly it cannot know all the modes of the objects. It can only cognise a part of the modes.[93]  Thus Avadhi, which may be compared to clairvoyance, differs with different individuals according to the capacity of the persons perceiving. The capacity is, in turn, determined by the relative merits acquired by the persons.

 

Modern psychical research has carried perception beyond opaque wall. Precognition and fore-knowledge have been of great interest to parapsychology.[94] Even Kant was greatly interested in ostensible clairvoyance by Swedenborg with reference to queen Lovisa in 1761 and the clairvolant cognition of the Stockholm fire. [95] In Indian society we get many instances of such forms of perception and dreams. A scientific study of such forms o£ perception is necessary.

 

The Jainas do not make Avadhi a form of super-normal rerception, because, beings living in hell, and even the lower animals, are capable of possessing Avadhi.  Heavenly beings and beings in hell possess Avadhi naturally from birth. They are endowed with it from birth. It is bhava pratyaya in them. In the case of human beings as well as the five-sensed lower organisms Avadhi is possible due to the destruction and subsidence of the relevant veil of Karma.[96] It is acquired by merit. It is called guna-pratyaya [97] The Visesavasyaka Bhasya gives a detailed description of Avadhi from the fourteen points of view and its varieties with reference to temporal and spatial extension.[98] The Pancastikayasara divides Avadhi into three types with reference to spatial extension desdvadhi paramavadhi and sarvavadhi.  The Nandi-Sutra gives six varieties of Avadhi that are possible in the case of homeless ascetics. It mentions subdivisions of these.[99]

 

The psychic phenomena called 'French sensitiveness or some times called as 'psychometry' may be included as a form of Avadhi-although in the psychometry mind and the sense organs play their parts. C. D. Broad accepts that clairvoyance is non-sensuous perception. Clairvoyan experiences are facts.  Eminent philosophers like Sidwick, Price and Broad have accepted that there are cases of such experiences.