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There is no obstacle in the existence of countless souls together. Just as the light of a lamp in a room can exist, and the light of thousands of other lamps can also exist in the same room without any hindrance, similarly, there is no obstacle in countless souls existing together in the same place at the same time, completely independent of each other.
Each soul has its own body-size - neither less nor more. The soul has the quality of shrinking and expanding, therefore it becomes the size of the body it receives as a result of its actions, just as the light of a lamp is limited to a small room when placed in it, and when the same lamp is placed in a large room, its light spreads throughout the large room. Similarly, one should understand the existence of the soul in the body of an ant and a giant.
**The Atemporal Nature of Karma**
From the above discussion, it becomes clear that the soul's existence is eternal and bound by karma. So, naturally, a question arises in the human mind: which came first, the soul or karma? Which is older and which is younger, or is karma also eternal like the soul? If the soul is older, then the bond of karma with it would also have to be considered eternal. In response to this question, the Jain scriptures say that karma is eternal in relation to the individual, but atemporal in relation to its flow. It is everyone's experience that beings sleep, wake up, rise, sit, walk, fall, and perform various actions. This action itself is the cause of karma-bondage. This proves that karma is eternal in relation to the individual. But no one knows or can tell when the flow of karma began. Just as the future is infinite, so is the past. There is no other way to describe infinity except by the words "eternal" or "infinite".