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36
55.
(But) O man! in this ascetic philosophy(i.e. the philosophy of the Arhats), it has been propounded that water itself is living.
ANNOTATIONS 54-55: Here a fundamental distinction is drawn between the two kinds of beings existing in water:
ĀYĀRO
(1) Beings which make water their habitat,
(2) Beings which are embodied in water, i. e. water molecules themselves become the physical bodies. They are termed as beings of water-body.
The worms or micro-organisms which live in water have been accepted as life in water by all schools of thought. But the assertion that water molecules themselves become the bodies of living organisms viz. beings of water-body is to be found only in the philosophy of Bhagavan Mahavira.
It is quite clear from the above that beings of water-body cannot be separated from water unless they are killed by a weapon, e. g. boiling. It follows, therefore, that the purest water, i. e. water from which beings of the first kind are completely removed, is still animate (sachitta) water.
Inanimate (achitta) water is that in which beings of water-body have been killed. Water may thus be classified into four types:
(a) Animate water containing beings of kind (1) (b) Animate water devoid of kind (1).
(c) Inanimate water containing beings of kind (1) (d) Inanimate water devoid of beings of kind (1).
Water may also be classified as follows:
(a) Animate, (b) Inanimate, (c) Mixed.
When a weapon is operated upon animate water, it either becomes inanimate or mixed, according to whether the weapon used is powerful enough or not.
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