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by Jayaram V
According to Jainism there are five ways in which the
jivas obtain knowledge of the
things and the world in which they live. Of
them the first three are imperfect means of knowledge and prone to
error, while the last two are perfect means of knowledge and convey the
truth without error. These five means or instruments of knowledge are
explained below:
1. Mati: Mati is mind/ Mati jnana is the knowledge of
the mind, gained usually through your senses, your memory, your remembrance, your
cognition, and your deductive reasoning. It is something which you
know with the help of your mind and its various faculties. From a soul's
perspective, this is indirect knowledge because it derived through the
external agent of mind and its faculties.
2. Sruthi: When you learn something from other
sources, other people or beings, through your observation of signs, symbols
or words, we call it sruthignana or the knowledge of sruthi or hearing. This
type of knowledge is gained through association, attention, understanding
and naya or varied interpretations of the meaning of things. This is
also indirect knowledge because of the external agents involved in obtaining
knowledge.
Avadhi: You gain this type of knowledge not
through any physical means such as the senses or the mind, but through your
psychic abilities, or through your intuitive awareness, by overcoming the
limitations of time and space. It is beyond the boundaries of your
ordinary awareness and faculties and is not generally available to every
one. This is direct knowledge.
Mahaparyaya: This knowledge is gained through the
reading of others' minds and thoughts. It is the knowledge of others that
you gain through some extraordinary process like telepathy or mind reading.
Kevala: It is the highest knowledge that you gain
when you transcend your ordinary self and become a Jina or Kevalin. It is
knowledge itself that does not require any outward means for its awareness.
It is always there, unattached, unlimited, and without any constraint, in
the consciousness of the enlightened Jina. It cannot be described to others
satisfaction, but can be experienced when the soul becomes liberated from
earthly bondage.
As we can see, the first two are indirect means of
knowledge since we have to depend upon some external source such as the
senses or the mind to know things,
while the other three are direct, where you do not have to depend upon some
external source to know about things.
The essential nature of jiva is consciousness or chaitanya, which
has both perception (darsana) and intelligence (jnana). The former is
more general (samanya) and superficial and the latter more specific
and detailed (visesa) in providing the souls with knowledge. According
to Jain beliefs, a jiva does not have to depend upon senses only for
perception. Even in a liberated state a jiva has the ability of
perception, which it does intuitively without sense organs. There are
also several stages in perception. Knowledge is both perfect and
imperfect. Liberated souls possess perfect knowledge, which is free
from doubt (samsaya), delusion (vimoha) and wrong perception (vibhrama).
Knowledge is also both standard (pramana) and relative (naya). The
former is based on a fact and the latter upon a perspective or stand
point.
Suggested Further Reading
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