Agam 15 Upang 04 Pragnapana Sutra Part 02

SR No.: 001064
Original Sutra Author: Shyamacharya
Author: Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 934
Language: Prakrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Agam, Canon, Metaphysics, & agam_pragyapana
File Size: 16 MB

Page 356

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CHAPTER XII
BODIES OF LIVING BEINGS
The twelfth chapter is devoted to the discussion on the bodies of living beings. There are five types of bodies--(1) audārika (the gross), (2) vaikriya (the transformable), (3) ahāraka (the projectable), (4) taijasa (the electric) and (5) kärmana (the karmic) (901). In Upanişads we come across the doctrine of five sheaths of a soul.2 Out of the five one is made up of food (annamayakośa). We can compare the audārika body with the sheath made up of food. Afterwards, philosophical systems like Sankhya posited a subtle body (avyakta-, sūksma- or linga- śarīra).3 It resembles the karmana body recognised by the Jainas.
The chapter takes up the 24 classes (dandakas) of living beings one by one answering in each case the question as to which types out of these five it has (902-909). Having done this it considers two sub-types of each of the five bodies. These two sub-types are-the bodies that living beings possess at present (baddha) and those that they possessed in the past (mukta). And the numerical strength of these two sub-types is calculated from the standpoints of dravya, kşetra and kāla (910). Again the chapter takes up those 24 classes one by one in each case asking as to how many bodies of this or that type it possesses at present, how many it possessed in the past. This calculation too is made from the standpoints of dravya, kşetra, and kāla (911-924).
The number of bodies from the standpoint of time is here to be understood as equal to the number of moments of temporal duration mentioned in the sūtra. Similarly, the number of bodies from the standpoint of space is to be understood as equal to the number of units of that much space which is pointed out in the sūtra. The number asamkhyāta and also the number ananta are of many types. But here we have used those terms in the general sense. So, to know the exact type of the number asamkhyāta and the number ananta employed in a particular context the readers interested in mathematics are requested to refer to the equations given in the sutras at the concerned places. The commentator has explained those equations at length.
1. Bhagavati 17. 1. sū. 592. 2. Taittiriya Upanişad, Bhrguvalli; History of Indian Philosophy, Belvalkar
and Ranade, p. 250. 3. Sankhyakārikā 39-40; History of Indian Philosophy, Belvalkar and Ranade
pp. 358, 430, 370; Introduction to Ganadharavāda, Malvania, pp. 121-123.