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The third kind of extraordinary perception is called yogaja. It is the intuitive perception of all objects--past, distant and future-due to some supernormal powers generated in the mind by devout meditation (yogabhyasajanito dharmavisesah). In the case of those who have attained spiritual perfection (yukta), such intuitive knowledge of all objects is constant and spontaIn the case of others who are on the way to perfection neous.

(yunjana), it requires the help of concentration as an auxiliary condition.' The reality of yogaja perception is generally accepted in Indian philosophy on the authority of the scriptures (Sruti and the like). But there is nothing absurd or strange in the concept of an intuitive knowledge of all things. As concepts analogous to yogaja we may mention the theological ideas of eternity and omniscience, or that of intuition in the philosophy of Spinoza and Schelling. Again, it is a psychological fact that by concentration we inay expand the span of our consciousness so as to cognise a number of objects at one and the same time. It is also a matter of common observation that sometimes we forget to do the right thing at the right inoment. In many cases, the reason for this is that our mind is distracted by or scattered over many other things. Sooner or later, however, we detect such lapses just when the distraction is over and the mind becomes calm and collected. Similarly, when we recollect something by an effort of attention we see how concentration of the mind helps to manifest the past and the distant. In truth, consciousness is, in its own nature, of unlimited span. The limitations of our consciousness are due, not to anything in the nature of consciousness itself, but to the physiological conditions under which it has to work in us. Such considerations suggest that it is possible for the human consciousness to have an instantaneous knowledge of all things, provided it can get over its organic limitations and natural distractions. But granting that such knowledge is possible, can we speak of it as perception in any sense? It is not certainly the ordinary perception of an object which is present to and affects our senses. What is past, distant or future cannot be the object of our ordinary sense perception. Still we cannot say that intuitive knowledge is due to inference or any other kind of reasoning. Intuitions come to us with the spontaneity and vividness of a lightning flash, as it were. In all respects they are more like 1 Bhasapariccheda & Siddhanta-muktavali, 65-66. 2 Ibid.

the given contents of our knowledge than the products of our imagination, thought or reasoning. Hence if we are to classify intuitive knowledge at all, we are to say that, like the knowledge by clairvoyance, it is perception of an extraordinary kind.