Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001263
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Devendramuni
Publisher: Tarak Guru Jain Granthalay
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 590
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 10 MB

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104
A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
receive pudgala, they show activity and their effects are not uniform. Due to the accrusion of material particles like the kārmic particles, jīvas express expansion and contraction. Yet they are atomic jp nature also and except in the case of the state of kevalin samudghāta, they do not become all-pervasive. Therefore, the jīvas are called as of madhyama-parimāņa in the sense they have intermediate size.
It should be noted that the attributes of expansion and contraction do not really belong to the nature of the soul. The attributes are ascribed to the kārmic bodies. Due to the accretion of kārmic particles jīvas occupy a particular size of the body. And the effects of this type of pervasion of the body in a particular size is due to the kärmic body. The largeness or smallness of the kārmic body is due to the four directions (gati). In the liberated state these characteristics are absent.
The capacity of the jīva of pervading the entire body that it occupies is likened to the capacity of the light of the lamp which pervades the entire room big or small. As the light of the lamp illu. mines the room which is big or small, so the jīva pervades the entire hody big or small. This pervasion is possible due to the kārmic body.
The jīva which occupies the body of a small child, occupies the body of a youth, and also the body of an old man. The soul which pervades a huge body can also contain itself in smallest of the bodies, the body of an insect.
x? CHARACTERISTIC OF JIVA
From the noumenal point of view, jīva has the characteristic of cetanā (the light of consciousness). All jīvas have this characteristic of cetana (the light of consciousness), and it is the inherent characteristic of the jīva. But the development of the jīva differ in each individual case according to its capacity and on the basis of the intensity of the kārmic encrustations. Similarly, the development of jīva depends on the extent of knowledge based on the removal of knowledge-obscuring karma. In describing the distinction between jīva and ajīva it has been said that all the jīvas, however in the lowest Possible stage of development, possess an infinite part of kevalajñāna