Spheres of Knowledge – Part 2 : The Means Of Knowledge
Knowledge is an ever growing element in every human being. One who possesses any kind of materialistic wealth may be called a rich person. But a person who acquires knowledge constantly can be the richest of all human beings at least in his surroundings and sometimes in the entire world also. Knowledge is the yardstick to measure the greatness of a human being. The growth of Knowledge is an indication of the progress of time in an individual’s life… Listen on…
Q 1: Thank you so much Prof. Rani Sadasiva Murty garu for such an insightful and informative talk, on the topic of “The Means of Knowledge”, in your series of lectures under “Sphere of Knowledge” in the section “JNANA” in SMRITI.
My first question – you mentioned right in the beginning, speaking on acquisition of knowledge by us all, you pointed out 2 aspects ‘Quality’ and ‘Quantity’… before we go deeper into the Vedic base, what is your definition and perspective of the above terms in our learning and knowing?
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Q 2 : You have beautifully explained the 2 types of aspects one comes across – ‘Valid and Invalid knowledge’ – ‘Prama and Brahma’…
Coming to the various sources of Valid knowledge in particular, you introduced the 6 fold processes in gaining knowledge – Direct Perception, Inference, Comparison, Verbal Testimony, Postulation and Non-perception.
In the Inference part, you brought some good number of technical terms which are very logical, can you please clarify a bit more on ‘hetu’, ‘sadhya’, ‘vyapti’, ‘paksa’.
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Q 3 : In the source called ‘Testimony’ among the 6 fold sources of knowledge acquisition, you shed some light on the origin of words and its classification further – as
1) Vedic (2) Laukika (ordinary). What is Vedic in this context?
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Transcript of lecture by Prof. Rani Sadasiva Murty… Read on below…
Knowledge is an ever growing element in every human being. One who possesses any kind of materialistic wealth may be called a rich person. But a person who acquires knowledge constantly can be the richest of all human beings at least in his surroundings and sometimes in the entire world also. Knowledge is the yardstick to measure the greatness of a human being. The growth of Knowledge is an indication of the progress of time in an individual’s life. Everyone accepts that human intellect is the treasure house of knowledge. But a very primary question should arise in the mind of every knowledge seeker. That is “how can a person acquire knowledge?” How can one increase the quantity and quality of knowledge? The present discourse throws light upon these two basic questions and tries to find a suitable answer through an appropriate approach. There are two aspects of knowledge namely Valid Knowledge or Yathartha Jnana and Invalid knowledge or Ayathartha Jnana. Taking a thing as it is Yathartha Jnana and taking a thing to be another thing is Ayathartha Jnana. The Valid Knowledge is called Prama and the Invalid knowledge is called Bhrama. The Valid knowledge has manifold sources. Some of the major ones are: Direct Perception, Inference, Comparison, Verbal Testimony, Postulation and Non-perception.
1. Direct Perception
It is in the experience of every normal human being to watch the environment around him through different ways and through different sources. The first among all such physical sources are one’s own eyes. For the question of what one’s eyes can see, the usual answer is that it does see the things. In fact the eye sees only the colors and with the help of one’s logical brain the shape, length, width etc are calculated and it is concluded that he is seeing a thing, a person, other beings or trees etc.
The next source in understanding one’s surroundings is the ears. With the help of ears one can hear different kinds of sounds. Similarly the nose helps to get the experience of smell, the tongue helps to taste and the skin helps to have the touch of anything. Thus these five sources namely the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and the skin are called the five sense organs. These are the five basic knowledge sources of human beings. The set of these five primary knowledge sources is called Jnanendriya Panchakam. Everybody wants to get every kind of knowledge through these five senses. The process of gaining knowledge through these five senses is commonly called PRATYAKSHAM or Direct perception. To say in specific the knowledge gained through the eyes is called visual perception or cahkshusha pratyaksham. The knowledge gained through ears is auditory or sabda pratyaksham. That which is gained through the nose is olfactory or gandha pratyaksham. Gustatory or rasana pratyaksham is that which knowledge gained through the tongue and finally the knowledge obtained through touch is tactile sparsana pratyaksham.
The interesting thing is that all these kinds of pratyaksham are possible only when the mind interacts with the senses and the object. In other words in the absence of mind the senses cannot get the knowledge of any object. Another important thing to remember is that the word pratyaksham means an object which is in front of one’s eyes. But it is by its indicative power is applicable to all the rest of the four senses also in perceiving their respective objects. Thus this being a direct source of knowledge called “Direct perception”. This is the first of all kinds of Valid knowledge.
2. Inference
The second source of valid knowledge is Inference. Inference is the means to ‘anuma’ knowledge. It is that knowledge preceding which there is some other knowledge. It is past or indirect (paroksa) and takes place through the medium of some mark which is called the ‘hetu and bears the relation of invariable concomitance with the observed feature. Inference literally means that knowledge which follows some other knowledge. The basis of the inference is the relation of invariable concomitance. The invariable relation between the hetu and the ‘Sadhya’ is called “vyapti. The knowledge of the qualities of the ‘paksa’ through the hetu is called ‘paramarsa’. Hence inference or anumana is said to be knowledge gained through paramarsa or in other words, the knowledge of the presence of the sadhya in the Saksa through the linga, which is in the quality of paksa and is invariably related by vyapti. For example, there is fire on the hill, because there is smoke on the hill and where there is smoke there is fire. Hence there is the relation of vyapti or invariable concomitance between the smoke and fire. For this reason the presence of fire on the hill is inferred from the presence of smoke on the hill because of vyapti, fire is invariably present where there is smoke.
3. Comparison
According to Nyaya philosophy, comparison is the name given to the knowledge of relation between a name and the thing so named. It supplies knowledge of the relation between a name and the object which is given that name. It is based on the knowledge of some common property or similarity between two major objects. Lets say that you have never seen a wild cow. A person dwelling in the forest informs you that it is like an ordinary cow and possesses much the same shape. If, then, you come across some animal which resembles a cow then this knowledge is the result of comparison. Here there is a relation between the name and the object of that name, or in other words, the animal known as the wild cow is similar to a cow. In this activity of comparison when we see the similarity between the cow and wild cow, and recollect that the wild cow resembles a cow, only then do we know that its name is wild cow.
4. Testimony
According to Nyaya philosophy, testimony is a reliable statement. A sentence is a group of words and word is an entity which has the power to express some meaning. According to the ancient Nyaya system, this power of being is due to God, while according to the later Nyaya philosophers it is endowed by tradition. The quality of being evidence or source of valid knowledge, is possessed not by all words, but only by the words of seers. If some individual has knowledge of the truth and presents this knowledge for the good of humanity, then his word shall be accepted as true. Knowledge comes about with the comprehension of the meaning and not only of the word. Hence the knowledge of the meaning of the statements of seers is testimony.
Words have been subdivided into two classes according to the Object of the meaning – Drstartha and Adrstartha. The former relate to the knowledge of such objects that are perceptible, as statements of seers and ordinary persons who can be believed by descriptions contained in religious texts concerning objects that have been seen, evidence given by witnesses in courts of law, believable facts concerning agriculture and the rituals described in religious texts for rain etc. The latter classification relates to imperceptible objects such as acceptable statements of common men, saints, religious leaders and religious texts, statements of scientists concerning atoms, beliefs of religious leaders concerning sin and virtue and the explanation of God, creatures and other things offered in the religious texts.
The origin of the words forms another basis for their classification – (1) vedic (2) laukika (ordinary). According to the Nyaya philosophers, words originate with some person be it a human individual or even God himself. Vedic words are the productions of God himself. Ordinary words are created by human beings. For this reason Vedic words are completely free from defections and delusions. Ordinary word can be true as well as false. The utterances of reliable individuals are treated as true.
5. Postulation (Arthapatti) as a source of knowledge
Postulation as a source of knowledge can be illustrated by an example. Take it granted for the moment that we hear or see that Devadatta does not eat anything in the day-time, but in spite of this he is getting fatter. There is a mutual contradiction between not eating in the day time and getting more around. These two contradictions can be resolved only when we assume that he must be eating heavily at night. This assumption can resolve the two contradictory facts and it becomes acceptable that Devadatta is getting bulkier even without eating anything in the day, but eating in the night. Thus the assumption of Devadatta eating at night is a postulation. We have never seen Devadatta eating his food at home, the knowledge gained by postulation is not perception or perceptual knowledge. It is not knowledge by testimony because we have never heard of Devadatta taking his food at night. It is also not inferential knowledge since there is no relation of invariable concomitance between physical rotundity and eating at night, or putting it ditterently, we cannot say that wherever there is physical rotundity. There is nocturnal dieting in this way postulation as a source of valid knowledge is not comprehended by any other source such as perception, inference, testimony etc. Consequently, the knowledge rendered by it is a peculiar or unique kind of knowledge and it has to be considered separately.
6. Anupalabdhi or non-perception
Non-perception or anupalabdhi is the immediate knowledge of the non-existence of an object. When no knowledge of the object is possible through perception and other sources of valid knowledge it is had by non perception. Non Perception is not perception. For example, there is no pot in this room. I do not perceive the non existence of the pot in this room, Non-existence is not an object which can come into contact with any sense organ. There can be contact between the eye and the pot, but how can there be contact between the eye and its absence Actually, the knowledge of absence or non existence is because of the non-perception of a perceivable object. If the pot is not visible in the room in the daylight we accept its absence or non existence. The absence of an object from the situation in which it should be available is said to be its non-existence.