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Indian Knowledge Systems Volume-l
INDIAN civilization has always attached great value to knowledge - witness its amazingly large body of intellectual texts, the world's largest collection of manuscripts, its attested tradition of texts, thinkers and schools in so many domains of knowledge. In Srfmadbhagvad-Gftii, 4.33,37-38, Lord Kr~1).a tells Arjuna that knowledge is the great purifier and liberator of the self. As we had noted in our Panjab University . Endowment lecture, 1 India's knowledge tradition is ancient and uninterrupted like the flow of the river Ganga, from the Vedas (Upani~ads) to Sri Aurobindo, knowledge or jfiiina has been at the centre of all rational and speculative inquiry in India.2
Three terms are closely connected in all discussions of know ledge - darsana, jfiiina and vidyii. Darsana, philosophy is the "system," the point of view, which yields/leads to jfiiina, knowledge. When knowledge gathered about a particular domain is organized and systematized for purposes of, say, reflection and pedagogy, it is called vidya, "discipline." The entire body
of organized knowledge is divided into two sets in the MU1fqakopani$ad - para vidyii and apara vidya (Mu1!.qakopani$ad, 1.1.4), knowledge of the ultimate principle, paramatmii or Brahman, (that is the metaphysical domain) andknowledge that is secondary to the means by which one grasps ak$ara- Brahman, (knowledge of the worldly domain). Distinction is accordingly made between jfiana and vijfiana, the knowledge of facts of the perceptible world. The first kind of knowledge is observational and is gained by the eyes, etc.; the other is experiential and is gained by the inner self as dra$ta. In one, the whole cognizing self is bahirmukhr directed towards and involved in the outer world; in the other, the whole cognizing self is antarmukhr, (turned inwards). To acquire the first kind of knowledge, only the sensory apparatus, including the mind, has to be prepared, but to acquire the second kind of knowledge the knower has to go through a process of preparation, sadhana, (for knowledge-acquisition). The Jaina thought also makes a distinction between rratyak$a jfiana which is knowledge present to the self (atma sapek$a) and parok$a ;fiana which is present to the senses and the mind (indriya-mana sapek$a).
Three terms are closely connected in all discussions of know ledge - darsana, jfiiina and vidyii. Darsana, philosophy is the "system," the point of view, which yields/leads to jfiiina, knowledge. When knowledge gathered about a particular domain is organized and systematized for purposes of, say, reflection and pedagogy, it is called vidya, "discipline." The entire body
of organized knowledge is divided into two sets in the MU1fqakopani$ad - para vidyii and apara vidya (Mu1!.qakopani$ad, 1.1.4), knowledge of the ultimate principle, paramatmii or Brahman, (that is the metaphysical domain) andknowledge that is secondary to the means by which one grasps ak$ara- Brahman, (knowledge of the worldly domain). Distinction is accordingly made between jfiana and vijfiana, the knowledge of facts of the perceptible world. The first kind of knowledge is observational and is gained by the eyes, etc.; the other is experiential and is gained by the inner self as dra$ta. In one, the whole cognizing self is bahirmukhr directed towards and involved in the outer world; in the other, the whole cognizing self is antarmukhr, (turned inwards). To acquire the first kind of knowledge, only the sensory apparatus, including the mind, has to be prepared, but to acquire the second kind of knowledge the knower has to go through a process of preparation, sadhana, (for knowledge-acquisition). The Jaina thought also makes a distinction between rratyak$a jfiana which is knowledge present to the self (atma sapek$a) and parok$a ;fiana which is present to the senses and the mind (indriya-mana sapek$a).
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Published July 22, 2021
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