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The Kaliedoscope of Jaina Wisdom
These 23 Vikrtis, Prakrti, and Purușa, i.e., in all 25 Tattvas, form the universe, being subject to nobody and nothing but Karma. In conformity with the innate Karmas, individual parts or Vyastis split off from the different derivatives of Prakrti, and manifest themselves either in an inorganic shape, or in that of one or other of the various organisms we see round about. Each of these organisms has two bodies, crystallised, as it were, around the respective image of Puruşa to which they are bound by Karma. They are : a subtle body, which contains all the products of Praksti except the gross elements, and a gross body, which consists of all the 24 products The individual being liable to metempsychosis, its gross body lasts as long as the Karmas admit, i.e., it is being renewed in every subsequent existence. The subtle body, however, lasts not only throughout all the existences of the individual, but even throughout all the creations and Pralayas, slumbering, during the periods of Pralaya, in an unmanifest form in Praksti.
Outfitted with these two bodies, and subject to its due joys and sufferings, the individual lives from existence to existence, and goes on collecting new Karmas, Punya by action in accordance with, and Pápa by acting in contradiction to, the prescriptions of the Vedas.
At the time of Pralaya, a retrograde development takes place, the gross Vyaşti being withdrawn into their respective Samasti, substances, the gross elements into the fine elements, the latter and the senses into the Ahankāratattva, the Ahankāratattva into the Mahat-tattva, and the latter into Praksti, so that, finally, nothing remains but Purușa and Prakrti, till both of them find themselves again engaged in the old play of creation, as before.
In this eternal play of the two, primeval forces, individual man acts but an inferior part, his own self being nothing but matter that reflects back an image of Universal Energy, subject to the power of Karma, opposite which it is actually helpless. In the moment only, when the knowledge of the 25 Tattvas arises within
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| SR No. | 001785 |
| Book Title | Charlotte Krause her Life and Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Shreeprakash Pandey |
| Publisher | Parshwanath Vidyapith |
| Publication Year | 1999 |
| Total Pages | 674 |
| Language | English, Hindi, Gujarati |
| Classification | Book_English, Biography, & Articles |
| File Size | 11 MB |