Jain Biology

SR No.: 006905
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 152
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

Page 109

When a human body is born, it is already about nine months old. It has spent these nine months of life, since conception, living as a parasite within the body of its mother. During this period it increases from a microscopic single cell to 3 to 4 kgs. mass of protoplasm composed of nearly 10 trillion cells, integrated into various functional systems.
4. BIRTH
Birth inevitably brings a certain amount of trauma for the infant. For nine months, it has rested in gently supporting fluids. The sheltering environment is suddenly replaced by air. The oxygen supply from the mother is cut off. With a convulsive gasp the newborn draws in air and fills its tiny lungs for the first time. A baby's existence and growth is dependent partly on hereditary programmed instructions contained in its DNA and partly in the instructions from the fruition of the body-making (nūma) karman. Organ-building, joint-building, structure-building, survival, and growth would be the outcome of the joint action of the DNA and various sub-species of the body-making (nāma) karman.
SUB-HUMAN VERTEBRATE ANIMALS
Para nos. 77 to 81 deal with the vertebrate animals which are possessed of five sense-organs. The process of reproduction in their case is very much similar to that of the humans requiring two parents and generally as described above. However while humans are viviparous, the sub-human animals are of three kinds:
(a) Viviparous—animals which bring forth their young in a developed state and whose embryo develops within its mother, obtaining nourishment from maternal tissues, e.g., placenta. All placental mammals are viviparous and so are certain animals (in botany germinating while still attached to the parent plant).
(b) Oviparous-animals which produce their young by means of eggs and lay eggs at the stage when there has been little of any development of embryo.
(c) Ovoviviparous—animals which produce their young by means of eggs which develop and hatch within its mother's body and
--:94:
JAIN BIOLOGY