________________
AN EPITOME OF JAINISM
Its consti
Freedom,
bondage and attain to a free and beatific tutional state of being by means of the Truine Gems (aaa), the Fiva is held to be constitutionally free and essentially all bliss (1). It is potentially divine in the sense that it attains to Divinity or Perfection in the end when it shines in all its glory and effulgence beyond all thought and speech near the regions of Aloka.
Its Divinity,
And its Infinitude, not in magnitude
but in num
ber.
(1)The Freed Jiva.
(2) The Fettered Jiva.
Which is classified again into,
(i) The Sthavara and
Now there are an infinite number of these fivas-filling the entire space and void of the universe and are mainly grouped into,
(A) Freed Fivas-are those beings who have attained to divinity and become selfconscious and self-luminous near the hyperphysical regions: and,
(B) Fettered Fivas-are those who are still bound down with the chains of karma either on Earth, in Heaven, or in Purgatory. These fettered fivas are again subdivided into (i) Sthâvara and (ii) Tras.
(i) Sthavara Jivas-are those which are devoid of all power of locomotion and have only one organ of sense, viz, that of touch (). Earth, water, fire, air and all those that come within the
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