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ents, could pervade asamkhyāta space-points and could be in touch with the units (pradeśas) of soul (1797-1800). Infernal beings mostly receive the material particles colour, etc. of which have inauspicious effects (1801). Living beings receive these material particles for their feeding from all directions (1802). Only one out of the asamkhyāta equal parts of the thus received material particles gets actually transformed into ahāra, food. Again, only one out of ananta equal parts of the particles actually transformed into āhāra could be relished by a living being (1803). But in the next sūtra we are told that all the particles that are received by a living being are transformed into ahāra (1804). In other words, all the particles that are received for feeding are undertaken in feeding. The material particles received in the act of feeding get transformed into five sense-organs. And this transformation gives rise to painful or miserable consequences alone in the case of infernal beings (1805) whereas it may give rise to pleasant consequences in the case of celestial beings, etc. (1806). The material particles grasped in feeding get transformed into as many senses as are possible in the class to which the concerned living being belongs (1812, 1819, 1820, 1823, 1825).
The ninth dvāra takes up 24 classes one by one and discusses the question as to whether the material particles utilised in feeding by a living being belonging to this or that class are in the form of the body of the one-sensed or the two-sensed or the three-sensed or the four-sensed or the five-sensed. The gist of the discussion is as follows: In the past these material particles might be of the form of the body of any being but in the present they do have the form of that body alone which is proper in the class to which the being who undertakes the feeding of those particles belong. That is, those particles get transformed into the body having as many sense-organs as are possible in the class to which the concerned living being belongs. This is so because the material particles utilised in feeding get transformed into the body of that living being only who utilises them in its feeding (1853-1858).
In the tenth dvāra we are told as to in which class from among the 24 the feeding through skin is possible and in which the feeding through mouth is possible. Here we learn that infernal beings, celestial beings and one-sensed beings undertake feeding through
5. At this juncture the commentator makes a suggestion that the sūtra
should be explained in such a way as there might not arise any conflict among them. Hence he positively says that by the phrase "particles received for feeding' is here intended the phrase 'one out of the asamkhyāta equal parts of particles received for feeding'. Refer to the commentary, folio 504.
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