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Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
A. This is not correct. The karman body has the quality of accumulation and decay. There is always karmic influx and shredding due to various causes. Thus, this body has (partial) withering and it can be designated as a body.
18 Q. The karman body should be placed first in the list of bodies in 2.36 as it is the support for all other bodies.
A. This is not correct. It is a fine entity and, hence, is an inferable reality as all the other gross bodies are its effects. As the existence of atoms is inferred from their effects like earthen pots etc. the karman body is also inferred from its effects. "The effect follows the cause' is the maxim (stated by Samantabhadra in his 'Apta-mīmānsä' Critique of the Attained). Hence, it has not been placed first.
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19. The effects of the karman body are material. It is also, therefore, proved to be material by nature. It does not seem logical that there could be the origination of active and material entity from inactive and non-material quality of the Invisible' (Adrsta )of the soul.
20. The gross body has been placed first as it is the most extensive and large. It is receivable by the senses also.
21. The other bodies have been placed in order of their increasing fineness. This fact will be mentioned in the later aphorism 2.37. Suppementary Notes
1.
The commentary deals with the followng points:
(a)
The five bodies have been named and defined etymologically. These are formed due to the realisation of specific physique-making karmas.
(b) All the bodies cannot be called as karmanic as they are formed through it, they are its effects, they are accumulation of karmic materials. (c) The karman body cannot be called non-existent or non-body as it is caused by itself and also by wrong faith etc. There may be no liberation without it. Its body-ness has also been justified.
(d)
The justification of the order of bodies in 2.36 has been justfied.
2.
The process of birth, in this text, is a multi-stage process. It involves karmic and genetic factors since conception. It also involves proper growth and embodiment before actual birth takes place. The total process may be long and short depending upon the type of the living species and, therefore, its completional development of body etc. In fact, the transmigrating karmically associated soul spacepoints acquire material particles for embodiments. Thus, there may be as many bodies as the number of living beings. However, this aphorism indicates the general classes of bodies the living being might acquire. It mentions five types of bodies based on their gradually increasing fineness and defined in the text. The bodies of all the living beings are included in these five classes.
3.
It must be noted that the embodiments are there for the worldly beings only. The liberated beings do not have either karmas or bodies.
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