CRITIQUE OF KNOWLEDGE

 

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.