Jaina Psychology

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Overview and Purpose:

"Jaina Psychology" by Mohan Lal Mehta is a scholarly exploration of the psychological dimensions within Jaina philosophy, with a particular focus on how the Jaina doctrine of karma serves as the foundational framework for understanding the human mind, consciousness, and behavior. The book aims to present a psychological analysis of key Jaina tenets, comparing and contrasting them with Western psychology and other Indian philosophical schools. It seeks to highlight the sophisticated and nuanced psychological insights embedded within Jaina thought, which have been relatively underexplored.

Core Argument: Karma as the Basis of Jaina Psychology:

The central thesis of the book is that Jaina psychology is intrinsically linked to its doctrine of karma. Every aspect of an individual's psychological experience, from consciousness and cognition to emotions and activities, is explained through the lens of karmic influx, bondage, fruition, and eventual elimination. Karma, in the Jaina context, is not merely "work" but a subtle form of matter that adheres to the soul, influencing its qualities and experiences.

Key Concepts and Chapters:

The book systematically delves into various psychological concepts as understood through Jaina philosophy, organized as follows:

• Chapter I: Karma: The Basis of Jaina Psychology:

  • Introduces the doctrine of karma as a cornerstone of Indian thought, explaining its role in addressing suffering and the diversity of human conditions.
  • Discusses the foundational assumptions of karma: the necessary consequence of every act, the demand for future lives for fruition, the explanation for individual diversity, and the concept of metempsychosis.
  • Addresses the determinism vs. free will debate, arguing that Jaina karma theory neither posits absolute determinism nor absolute libertarianism, but rather a state of partial freedom and partial constraint.
  • Examines alternative theories of causation (Time, Nature, Pre-determination, Chance, Matter) and rejects them as insufficient to explain the universe's variegation, asserting karma's supreme explanatory power.
  • Defines Jaina karma as subtle matter that obscures the soul's inherent perfections (infinite apprehension, comprehension, bliss, and power). It explains how karma, though material, can affect the immaterial soul, drawing parallels with natural phenomena.
  • Details the eight fundamental types of karma (comprehension-obscuring, apprehension-obscuring, feeling-producing, deluding, age-determining, physique-making, status-determining, power-obscuring) and their sub-types, including their duration, intensity, and quantity.
  • Explains the causes of karmic bondage and liberation, emphasizing the role of activities (mental, vocal, physical) and passions.

• Chapter II: Consciousness and Cognition:

  • Defines consciousness as the essential attribute of the soul (self), not a material substance.
  • Distinguishes between apprehension (darśana) (indeterminate, general awareness) and comprehension (jñāna) (determinate, specific knowledge).
  • Argues for the soul as the substantial and immaterial principle of consciousness, refuting materialistic explanations.
  • Explores various Indian philosophical views on indeterminate cognition and contrasts them with modern psychology's understanding of sensation.
  • Presents the Jaina conception of indeterminate cognition, noting differing interpretations regarding its object (existence vs. generality) and its relationship with comprehension.
  • Discusses the temporal relationship between apprehension and comprehension, highlighting the debate on simultaneity, succession, and identity, particularly concerning omniscient beings.

• Chapter III: Sensory and Mental Comprehension:

  • Differentiates between sensory/mental comprehension (conditioned by senses and mind) and extra-sensory comprehension (directly from the soul).
  • Analyzes the nature and functions of sense-organs and the mind from various Indian philosophical perspectives (Buddhist, Sankhya, Nyaya-Vaisesika, Mimamsaka, Vedantist) before detailing the Jaina view.
  • Explains the Jaina classification of senses into physical (material) and psychical (karmic destruction-cum-subsidence) types.
  • Clarifies the unique position of the mind as an internal sense-organ, capable of cognizing all objects of the senses.
  • Discusses the problem of sense-object contact, noting Jaina agreement with most schools on direct contact for most senses, but exception for vision.
  • Delves into the categories of non-verbal comprehension (mati-jñāna): sensation (avagraha), speculation (īhā), perception (avāya), and retention (dhāraṇā), examining their nuances and differing interpretations among Jaina thinkers.
  • Explains verbal comprehension (śruta-jñāna), its dependence on non-verbal comprehension, the role of language, and its differentiation from non-verbal comprehension.

• Chapter IV: Extra-Sensory Perception:

  • Introduces extra-sensory perception (ESP) as transcending normal sensory laws, with Jaina psychology recognizing three forms: limited direct perception (avadhi), direct perception of mental processes (manahparyaya), and perfect perception (kevala - omniscience).
  • Compares these with modern parapsychological terms like clairvoyance and telepathy, noting Jaina explanations based on karma and speculative arguments, while acknowledging modern experimental support.
  • Details clairvoyance (avadhi) as perception of form-possessing objects, varying in scope and durability based on karmic obscurations, and lists its six types.
  • Explains telepathy (manahparyaya) as the direct cognition of mental states, often seen as more lucid than clairvoyance, and limited to human beings with specific conduct. It discusses the Jaina debate on whether telepathy perceives external objects directly or inferentially.
  • Discusses omniscience (kevala) as the perfect manifestation of consciousness upon the complete annihilation of all obscuring karmas, perceiving all objects with all their modes.
  • Presents arguments for omniscience, citing the progression of knowledge towards completion.
  • Refutes common objections to omniscience, particularly from the Mimamsa school, by explaining the nature of Jaina omniscience as simultaneous, non-sequential, and beyond temporal/spatial limitations.

• Chapter V: Sense-Feeling and Emotion:

  • Defines feeling as an intermediate state between cognition and conation, encompassing simple pleasure/pain and complex emotions.
  • Discusses sense-feeling (resulting from feeling-producing karma) and emotions (from deluding karma).
  • Critically examines the Jaina view that omniscients experience organic feelings, arguing against it on the grounds of the omniscient's freedom from passions and reliance on the mind.
  • Asserts that feeling is conditioned, not solely caused by external objects, and that karma plays a primary role.
  • Contrasts Schopenhauer's view of pleasure as negative with the Jaina perspective of both pleasure and pain being positive experiences arising from karma.
  • Categorizes emotions into strong (passions: anger, pride, deceit, greed) and mild (quasi-passions: laughter, sorrow, liking, disliking, disgust, fear, sex-drive).
  • Details the Jaina classification of passions and quasi-passions, often linking them to ethical conduct and karmic bondage.
  • Critically evaluates the Jaina concept of the co-existence of emotions, expressing disagreement with the possibility of simultaneous realization of multiple emotions, asserting that only one conscious activity can occur at a time.
  • Discusses the psychological significance of emotions like anger, pride, deceit, greed, and fear, often relating them to Jaina karmic classifications and moral implications.

• Chapter VI: Activity and Its Control:

  • Defines activity (yoga in Jaina terms) as the manifestation of the soul's innate energy (vīrya), obscured by power-obscuring karma.
  • Identifies three types of activity: mental, vocal, and physical, each influenced by karma.
  • Analyzes the nature of mental activity (thinking), classifying it into true, false, mixed, and neutral.
  • Explains vocal activity (speech) as a form of sound produced by physique-making karma, also categorized into four types.
  • Details physical activities linked to five types of bodies (gross, transformable, projectable, electric, karmic) and their combinations.
  • Focuses on the control of activities, comparing Jaina concepts (samvara) with Yoga (yoga) and Buddhism.
  • Outlines the Jaina path to control through self-regulation (gupti), moral virtue (dharma), contemplation (anuprekṣā), conquest of afflictions (parīṣaha-jaya), auspicious conduct (cāritra), and austerity (tapas).
  • Explains the role of physical and mental austerities, emphasizing that mortification is a means to spiritual purification, not an end in itself.
  • Discusses meditation (dhyāna) as crucial for self-realization, encompassing stages similar to Yoga (withdrawal, concentration, meditation, ecstasy) and classifying it into mournful, cruel, inquisitive, and metaphysical types.
  • Presents the "eightfold path of self-realisation" (mitrā to parā) as stages of spiritual progress leading to the cessation of activities and omniscience.

• Chapter VII: Transmigration:

  • Links transmigration directly to the doctrine of karma, explaining it as the soul's journey through various births (human, animal, celestial, hellish) dictated by accumulated karma.
  • Argues for individual immortality of the soul, distinct from the impermanent personality.
  • Addresses common objections to rebirth (lack of memory, suffering for unknown deeds, heredity) and provides Jaina counter-arguments.
  • Details the Jaina account of transmigration, including the concept of "ānupūrvī" (karmic momentum guiding the soul to a new body) and refuting the idea of unidirectional progress through evolution.
  • Discusses the four states of existence (celestial, hellish, human, animal) and the vast classification of beings within the animal kingdom (immovable: earth, water, plants; movable: fiery, airy, organic bodies with varying senses).
  • Explains how karma influences one's rebirth into these states, with the human state being crucial for self-discipline and liberation.
  • Describes celestial beings and denizens of hell, their karmic conditions, and modes of existence, noting the human realm's unique potential for spiritual progress.

• Chapter VIII: Conclusion and Recapitulation:

  • Reiterates the significance of karma and transmigration as the bedrock of Jaina psychology and ethics.
  • Summarizes the Jaina explanations of consciousness, cognition (apprehension and comprehension), their temporal relations, and the role of the soul.
  • Briefly restates the nature of sensory, mental, and extra-sensory perceptions (clairvoyance, telepathy, omniscience).
  • Reviews Jaina concepts of feeling and emotion, highlighting the philosophical debates on pleasure/pain, the omniscient's experience, and the co-existence of emotions.
  • Revisits the classification of activities (mental, vocal, physical) and their control through self-regulation, virtues, contemplation, austerities, and meditation.
  • Reiterates the Jaina belief in progression and retrogression through transmigration, governed by karma, and summarizes the classes of beings.

Key Contributions and Perspective:

Mehta's work provides a comprehensive and systematic exposition of Jaina psychological thought. It emphasizes:

• Karma as the explanatory principle: All psychological phenomena are ultimately traceable to karma.
• The soul as the conscious agent: Consciousness is an inherent quality of the soul, not a product of matter.
• A nuanced understanding of free will: Individuals have agency within the karmic framework.
• The pragmatic and ethical nature of Jaina psychology: Psychological insights are deeply intertwined with ethical conduct and spiritual liberation.
• The meticulous classification of psychological states: Jaina texts offer detailed classifications of cognitions, emotions, activities, and karmic types.
• The integration of Eastern and Western thought: The author actively compares Jaina concepts with modern Western psychological theories, highlighting potential areas of convergence and divergence.

In essence, "Jaina Psychology" is presented as a profound system that offers a holistic view of human existence, where psychological states are intricately linked to a cosmic moral law, guiding the soul towards ultimate liberation.