MANAHPARYAYA: Next form of supernormal perception-which
is manahparyaya. It is the direct experience of the modes of mind
substance working in other individual mind. The Avasyaka Niryukti gives a
brief description of the nature of Manahparyaya knowledge. Manahparaya
cognises the objects of thought by the minds of other people. [100] The
Visesavasyaka Bhasya states that a person possessing Manahparyaya directly
cognises the mental states of others without the instrumentality of the
sense organs and the mind.[101]
In Western thought such a form of cognition was called
'thought transferences'. Myers coined the phrase 'Telepathy' for
describing such experience. Tyrrel gives many instances of Telepathic
cognition. He also mentions instances of collective telepathy which he
calls collective telepathic calculations.[102] In the publication called
'apparitions' published by the Society for Psychical Research many
interesting examples of telepathic cognition have been mentioned.
Manahparyaya, telepathic experience, is not easy to get
and is not common for all. A certain physical and mental discipline is the
condition for getting such capacity of intuition. In the Avasyaka Niryukti
we are told that Manahparyaya is possible only for human beings of
character, especially for homeless ascetics. Human beings acquire this
capacity due to merit and by the practice of mental and moral
discipline.[103] The Nandt Suta gives detailed description of the
conditions of the possibility of Manahparyaya in the case of human
beings.[104] The conditions for the possession of Manahparyaya are i) the
human beings in the Karma-bhumi must have fully developed sense organs and
a fully developed personality i.e., they must be parydpta. ii) They must
possess right attitude, samyag drsti. As a consequence they must be free
from passion. iii) they must be self-controlled and they must be possessed
of radhi, extra ordinary powers the discipline and the occult powers
attainable by the Yogis mentioned in the Patanjala Yoga is analogous to
such a description of the qualifications of the human beings possessing
Manahparyaya. Siddhasena Divakara says that lower organisms possessing two
or more sense organs are also found to possess Manahparyaya. But the
traditional Jaina view does not accept the possibility of Mahahparyaya in
the case of lower animals. Rhine says that it possible to find instances
of the possibility of such perceptions in the case of lower animals
especially the higher vertebrates. Several experiments have been carried
in this connection and several instances have been quoted.[105]
The Sthananga recognizes two varieties of Manahparyaya
as rjumati and vipulaati.[106] Umasvati makes a similar distinction.[107]
He says that Rjumati is less pure and it sometimes falters. Vipulamati is
purer and more lasting. It lasts up to the rise of omniscience. We also
get such a description in the Pancastikdyasara.[108] Rjumati gives a
straight and direct intuition of the thoughts of others, while in
Vipulamati the process of knowing the ideas of others is manifested in an
irregular way. Pajyapada describes the nature of Manahparyaya as the
intuitioner or objects of the activities of the sense organs of speech,
body and mind.[109] He says that Vipulamati knows less number of objects
than Rajumati, but whatever it knows it knows perfectly and vividly.
Vipulamati is more penetrating and it is more lucid than Rjumati. Rjumati
falters. One who is at the upward stage of spiritual development has
acquired Vipulamati while one who is sure to descend in the spiritual
development gets the Rjumati Manahparyaya. [110]
In the West the phenomena of extra-sensory perception
like clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition and mediumship have been
accepted as facts, even psychologists like McDougall are inclined to
believe that extra-sensory perception like clairvoyance, telepathy and
fore-knowledge seems in a fair way esablished.[111] Prof. H.H. Price says
that evidence for clairvoyance and telepathy is 'abundant and good'.[112]
Prof Richet admits that telepathic experiences certainly exist.[113] Dr.
Rhine has done good work in extra sensory perception. ~ says that
extra-sensory perception in the form of clairvoyance and telepathy is an
actual and demon strable occurrence It is not a sensory phenorrienon.
[114]
KEVALA: According to the Jainas the soul, in its pure
form is pure consciousness and knowledge. It is ominscient. But it is
obscured by the karmas as the moon or the sun is liable to be obscured by
the veil of dust, fog or a patch of cloud.[115] When such a veil of karma
is removed omniscience dawns. That is kevala jnana. That is a stage of
perfect knowledge and a stage of kaivalya.
Omniscience intuits all substances with all their
modes.[116]. Nothing remains unknown in omniscience. It is knowledge of
ali substances and modes of the past, present and the future,. all in one
It is lasting and eternal. It is transcendentaI and pure. It is the
perfect manifestation of the pure and the real nature of the soul, when
the obstructive veils of Karma are removed.[117] This omniscience is
coexistent with the supreme state 'of absolute clarity of life monad'.
This is precisely the release.[118] No longer is the monad dimmled with
the beclodding passions but open and free and unlimited by the
particularizing qualities that constitute individuality'. The moment the
limitation that makes particular experience possible is eliminated perfect
intuition of every thing is attained. The need of the experience is
dissolved in infinite this is the positive meaning of kaivalya.[119]
Zimmer says that one is reminded of the protest of the modern French poet
and philosopher Paul Valery in his novel Mansieur Tests. 'There are
people', he writes, who feel that the organs of sense are cutting them off
from reality and essence ... knowledge. a cloud obscuring the essence of
being; the shining moon, like darkness or a cataract on the eye ! Take it
all away so that modern theory of knowledge from which it arises. is
remarkably close to the old idea which Janism holds: that of the limiting
force of our various faculties of human understanding.
Mimamsakas are not prepared to accept the possibility
of the occurrence. The Mimamsakas raised a series of logical objections to
the possibility of omniscience. According to the Mimamsakas omniscience
cannot mean the knowledge of all the objects of the world either at the
same time or successively. Nor can omniscience be knowledge of archetypal
forms and not of particular things. There can be no omniscience because
knowledge of the-past, the present and the future can never be exhausted.
Moreover. if all objects were known in omniscience at one moment then the
next moment it would be uncanscience and blank. The omniscience, gain,
would be tainted by the desire and aversions o� others in knowing them.
But Jainas refute the argument of the Mimamsakas
regarding the problem of the occurrence of omniscience. In the Pramna
Mimamsa we get the refutation of the Mimamsa arguments against the
occurrence of omniscience. Similarly Mimamsakas have been replied by
Prabhacandra in Prameya-kamala-martanda. The Jainas say that it is not
correct to deny the occurrence as the Mimamsakas do. Omniscience is the
single intuition of the whole world because it does not depend upon the
sense organs and the mind. The pure intuition of the omniscient self knows
all the objects simultaneously by a single stroke of intuition since it
transcends the limits of time and space. Prabhacandra says that the
Mimamsaka objection that the omniscient soul would be unconscious the next
moment of the occurrence of omniscience is not correct, because it is a
single unending intuition. For the omniscience, cognition and the world
are not destroyed the moment the omniscience is possible. Similarly. the
Jainas contend, as against -the Mimamasakas, that the omniscient soul
knows the past as existing in the past and future as existing in the
future.[120] The omniscient self is absolutely free from the bondage of
physical existenceas past. present and future. In fact, the Mimamsakas
also admit that in recognition we apprehend the past as well the present
in one cognition, and a flash of intuition called pratibha jnana in
enpirical life can apprehend future as future. It is therefore possible
for the omniscient soul who is entirly free from the fetters of Karma to
have a super-sensuous vision of the whole world, past, present and future
by a single unending flash of intuition. In the Pramana Mzmamsa the
possibility of the occurrence of omniscience is logically proved by the
necessity of the final consummation of the progressive development of
knowledge.[121] There are degrees of excellence in knowledge and the
knowledge must reach its consummation somewhere. That is the stage of
omniscience when the obscuring Karmas are totally annihilated.
The Nandt Sutra mentions two types: i) Bhavastha.
omniscience of the liberated who still live in this world as for instance
the omniscience of the Tirtharnkaras. ii) Omniscience of the' one who is
totally liberated which may be called Siddha. The Bhava-' sutha
omniscience is again of two types as i) Sayogi and ii) Ayogi. There are
subdivisions in both these. Similarly Siddha omniscience is of two types
as i) Anantara-Levala and ii) Parampara-kevalas each having its
subdivisions.[124]
The Jaina view of omniscience may be compared to the
Nyaya view of the divine knowledge,[125] and the Yoga theory of divine
perception.[126] Divine knowledge is all-embracing intuition. It is
perceptual in character as it is direct and as it is not derived through
the instrumentality of any other cognition. The divine perception grasps
the past. the present and the future in one eternal 'now'. The soul,
according to the Jaina, is itself divine and perfect and there is no other
transcendental being than the individual soul. Each soul is a God by
itself although it is obscured by the Karmic veil in its empirical state.
The Kaivalya state of the individual soul may be compared to the divine
omniscience. However. the Naiyayikas and Pratanjali accept that man has
sometimes the flash of the intuition of the future, and he can attain
omniscience by constant meditation and the practice of austerities. The
Jainas believe that the removal of
obscuring karmas by meditation, three-fold path and
self-control, the individual soul reaches the consummation of omniscience,
the state of Kaivalya. That is the finality and the end. But others like
the Naiyayikas posit a divine omniscience which is higher, natural and
eternal.
It is not possible to establish the possibility of
omniscience on the basis of empirical methods of investigation which
psychology and empirical science follow. However, its logical possibility
cannot be denied. Progrsssive realization of greater and subtle degrees
of knowledge by the individual is accepted by some psychologists
especially with the introduction of Psychical Research for analyzing
extra-sensory perception. A consummation of this progressive realization
would logically be pure knowledge and omniscience, a single all-embracing
intution.
Email this page 
Philosophy
