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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 Ignorance or avijja is defined Jainism, the theory of stand points Jainism, the theory of syadavada or saptabhangi Ignorance from the aspect of Right View Knowledge The Philosophy of Nyaya and Vaisheshika of Hinduism Kapila and the Samkhya yoga Advaita Vedanta As It Exists Buddhi, Discriminating Intelligence

Wednesday , September 21, 2011

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