Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals

SR No.: 001656
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 210
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Biology
File Size: 13 MB

Page 133

Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
vijnāna) for this term which now seems to cover all the different psychological terms in this context. However, TSB indicates instincts to mean deliberation or ascertainment capacity which implies more mental content in them.
The secondary canons and other canonical commentaries have mentioned more than twenty instincts which can be classified in three categories as given below: (i) Experiential or subjective or primary drives: (a) general instincts 4 (food, fear, sex, sleep/possession) (b) emotions: passions 4 (anger, prided, deceit, greed) (c) emotions : quasi-passions 5 (pleasure, pain, sorrow, delusion and disgust) (ii) cognitive instincts 8 (5 types of knowledges, religion, tradition, whim) (iii) specific cognitive instincts 4 (education, action, instruction, recital) They could increase in number when four-fold varieties of passions indicating their intensity are taken into account along with some additional quasi-passions like liking, laughter and three types of libido. All this added, they turn out to be forty five in all. Their number may further go up. This Jaina enumeration is more exhaustive than the psychological one which has about 15 instincts only. However, these include approximatedly all the 45 directly or indirectly.
It is clear that the term 'instinct' connotes physical, physiological, psychological and cognitive functions and disturbances of the living. However, it seems the number of instincts has been growing gradually from 4 to 10, 16, 21, 25, 29 and 45. Also, it seems the specific category of four must have been added later to clarify the point that many instincts are found in all the living beings. Moreover, the Jainas have added an additional dimension to it by pointing out that these instincts are caused by the realisation of feelingproducing, deluding and knowledge-obsucuring karmic subspecies. They point out that karmic realisation is their essential cause while other factors are helping causes. The psychologists will not make any comment on this dimension at this stage.
The above instincts bring about many types of internal and external changes. The internal change are like changes in (i) heart beat (ii) blood pressure (iii) respiration rate (iv) galvanic skin resistance (v) nervous system (vi) EEG (vii) blood composition and (viii) brain waves which are measurable. These measurements have given an approximate relationship berween instincts (causes) and internal changes (effect). One hopes this realtionship could be utilised in case of karmic dimension. 5. This aphorism defines the living beings endowed with mind as those who have these different types of experiential or cognitive instincts. However, there is a difficulty. Prajnapanā points out that both types of instincts are found among the living beings beginning from earth-bodied ones upto the five-sensed in visible or invisible forms. This has been experimentally proved in case of
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