________________
the Jaina philosophy. Its first teaching is that the universe is not merely a congeries of substances, heaped together and set in activity by an extracosmic creator, but is a system by itself, governed by laws inherent in its very constitution. Law is not to be understood in the sense of a rule of action prescribed by authority, but as a proposition which expresses the constant mode of action of things or beings under certain definite circumstances. It is not a command, but a formula to which things or beings conform precisely and without exception under definite relations, internal and external. Jainism, therefore, is not a theistic system in the sense of belief in the existence of a God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe ; and still the highest being in the Jaina view is a person, and not impersonal, characterless, qualityless being. All that there is in or of the universe may be classified under two heads: (1) Sentient, animate or conscious beings : (a) liberated beings, (b) embodied beings; and (2) Insentient, inanimate or unconscious things or substances. There is not an inch of space in the universe where there are not innumerable minute living beings. They are smaller than the minutest things we can see with the aid of a microscope. Weapons and fire are too gross to destroy them. Their life and death depend on their vital forces, which are, of course, related to the surroundings. Clay, stones, etc., as they came fresh from the earth, have life. Water, besides being the home of many living beings, is itself an assemblage of minute animate creatures.
80
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
