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Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
8. Secondly, if the above point is not satisfactory, the word 'ca' should be taken to indicate the inclusion of eighty four lac varieties of birth-places not mentioned in the aphorism. These will be detailed later in 2.32.27. 9. The word 'Ekasah' (one by one) in 2.32 means repetition. This indicates the combination with proper order. This should mean combination in the form of, 'livingful-cum-non-livingful, hot-cum-cold and covered-cum-noncoverd'. It should, otherwise, have meant livingful-cold, cold-covered etc. This is undesirable. 10. The word 'tad' (that) in the aphorism indicates the meaning regarding the current topic. 'That', thus, means the birth or kinds of birth. The above are the nine birth places of agglutinational or other types of births. The word 'yoni' (birth-place) is derived from a root word having a meaning of serving as a source of springing out or a receptacle. 11. Q. The word 'yoni' has a feminine gender. Thus, the aphorism describing their varieties should also have the corresponding gender. When these are addition compounded, the aphorism should have the corresponding feminine gender rather than the masculine one as is observed. Moreover, it is said that when there is one subtratum, there should be masculine gender. In contrast, there are different substratums here. 12. A. This is not a flaw. The word 'birth place' (yoni) has a dual gender. It has the masculine gender in this aphorism. 13. Q. It is contended that there should be no difference between the birth and the birth-place. The soul is called as special bed-born when it is in the mode of a celestical being etc. This special bed is also the birth-place for them. A. This is not correct. There is different between the two. The birth-place is the substratum or receptacle and the birth-type is the substrate or receivable. Thus, there is substratum-substrate relationship between the two. The soul acquires mattergic entities suitable for a-sexual etc. birth-type in the livingful birth-place etc. which are the substratum for the emboding soul. 14. The word 'sacitta' (livingful) is placed first in the aphorism because it has a conscious nature. The conscious one is prominent in the world. 15. The 'cold' has been placed next as it is the cause of promotion of the conscious entity. 16. The 'covered' has been placed in the end as it is hidden. The hidden action or entity is not preceptible in the world. 17. Q. Let there be a single birth-place for all types of the living beings. A. This is not correct. Every embodied soul has different types of good or bad volitions. They cause varied typed of karmic bonds. Accordingly, their realisations are also varied in the form of experiencing the pains and pleasures. There are, therefore, many types of birth-places depending on these karmic realisations.
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