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Bhagavai 7:1:1 (dandaka) are to be spoken of, excepting that the souls-in-general and the one-sensed beings, at the fourth samaya, are necessarily ingester of nourishment, while the remaining soul-groups are so at the third samaya.
Bhāsya 1. Sutra 1
There are four kinds of nourishment: 1. Oja āhāra- Sap 2. Loma āhāru-- Nutrients obtained through the pores of the skin 3. Praksepa āhāra-Oral nourishment (or alimental food) 4. Manobhakşi āhāra-Nourishment obtained through by merely wishing. The soul (living being) who ingests the nourishment is called 'ingester of nourishment', while one who does not do so is called 'noningester of nourishment'.
Sap-nourishment is ingested by the embryo in the first antarmuhūrtta (i.e., within 48 minutes) of conception. That is followed by the nourishment through the pores of the skin (after the completion of bio-potentials) that continues up to the end of life. The oral nutrition (or alimental food) is ingested as meal (through morsal, gulp or sip etc.).
Ingestion of nourishment by every embodied soul is invariably concurrent with the activity of body, speech and mind (i.e. till the end of the 13th state of spiritual development), without which life cannot function.
The non-ingestion of nourishment is an exceptional event, taking place on two occasions, viz., transit from one birth to another and expansion of soul-units by some Omniscient Lord before attaining liberation. In the present Sūtra, only the transmigratory motion (i.e., motion in-transit) has been taken into consideration. Such motion is of two types—1. Straight motion-horizontal or vertical without any turn. 2. Motion with turn(s). The soul which has to travel in 'straight motion' only, reaches the place of birth in one samaya only (See fig. 1 & 2). If the place of birth is situated at a place, which is to be reached with one turn, the transit takes two samayas (See fig. 3). If the place of birth is to be reached with two turns, then the transit takes three sumayas (See fig. 4). Maximally, the transit may take four samayas. Thus
(1) When the transit of the soul is in straight motion to the birth-place, then in the first sumaya of the next life-span, it is 'ingester of nourishment'. When the transit of the soul is with turn or turns, in the first samaya of the next life-span, the soul is ‘non-ingester of nourishment'. From these two contexts, it follows that at the first samaya, sometime the soul is ingester and sometime non-ingester of nourishment
(2) (i) When a soul takes two samayas in transit with one turn', it is noningester of nourishment in the first samaya and the ingester of nourishment in the second samaya.
[ii] When the soul takes three samayas in 'transit with two turns', it is noningester of nourishment in the first and second samayas and ingester of nourishment
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