Atma Siddhi

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, J L Jaini
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

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bees, butterflies, etc. etc. are living; bricks, chairs, tables, spoons, mats, walls, nails etc. etc. are non-living. There can be no doubt or question that the first, or the living class, is entirely different from the second, or the nonliving class. In other words, there is possession of life by one; but not by the other. This fact of life is only one index of what we mean by soul, as will be seen later. Here we may as well see what we mean by living and non-living. By Life we mean Vitality. By a living substance, we mean that which has Vitality. There are 10 distinct kinds of Vitalities. They can only be found where there is a soul, and they can never be found in a non-soul. These are (1) The faculty or sense of (i) touch, (ii) taste, (iii) smell, (iv) sight and (v) hearing; (2) the power of (i) body, (ii) speech and (iii) mind; (3) the phenomenon of respiration; and (4) The continuity of Vitality, or the power of remaining vital for and up to a certain time. Thus there are four main and in all 10 kinds of Vitalities. All the four must be present in every living being, however low in the scale of being e. g., the tiniest, lowest amoeba has the sense of touch, the power of body by which it moves, the respiration and its life-period. As
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