The Five Means of Knowledge

By Mr. C. P. Jain

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 : Matignana is the knowledge that you gain through your mind, 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.

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.

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.

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 to know things, while the other three are direct, where you do not have to depend upon some external source to know about things.

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