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'samudghāta'. Samudghāta is of many types. A detailed treatment of all its types occurs in Pada XXXVI. Hence the treatment of a dwelling place of living beings from the standpoint of samudghāta becomes necessary. Here in this second Pada all the three types of dwelling places which living beings of different classes inhabit are described.
The classes of living beings whose dwelling places are described here are already mentioned in Pada I. It is clear that some main classes of living beings, like that of one-sensed beings (ekendriya), enumerated in Pada I are not discussed here, whereas some main classes like that of five-sensed beings are discussed here. Again, not all the sub-classes of living beings are discussed here. Thus in this Pada are described not all the classes and sub-classes of living beings enumerated in Pada I but only some main ones from among them. The comparison of the treatment of this topic in Prajñpană with the same in other works will be useful to trace the history of the expansion or otherwise of this topic. This comparison will help us not only in our study of how the treatment of the topic became more and more elaborate but also in fixing the dates of the concerned works. Hence we shall attempt the comparison.
Someone might raise a question as to why it is necessary to give thought to the discussion of the dwelling places of the living beings of various classes. The answer to this question is as follows. * According to Jaina philosophy the size of soul is identical with that of the body; it does not consider soul to be all-pervading. This makes possible the movement of soul, in its transmigratory condition, from one place to another for taking a new birth and for assuming a new body in a particular predetermined place. So, it is necessary to give thought to and elaborately discuss the question as to which class of living beings inhabit which regions or places. Thus the Jaina theory of the size of soul necessitates the discussion about the various regions that soul inhabits in its various transmigratory existences. According to other Indian philosophical systems, soul is allpervading. Hence they treat the question of dwelling places from the standpoint of body only. For them, soul is always there in the universe everywhere. Hence it is not inevitable for those systems to discuss the question of dwelling place of soul.
According to Buddhist Philosophy there is no soul. But the Buddhists certainly believe in citta (consciousness, rather stream of consciousness). Hence they raise and answer the question of its dwelling places in the universe. Readers are requested to refer to Abhidharmapitaka for the Buddhist treatment of this topic.
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