Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 96

Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
The classes of consciousnes have been mentioned. This is the common differentia of all the living beings. The next aphorism describes two classes of the conscious beings:
Sansāriņo Muktas-ca
2.10
There are two types of conscious being- (i) wordly beings and (ii) liberated beings.
1.
There are eight types of karmas which the soul binds through spacepoint, configuration, duration and intensity types of bonds. The world is defined as successive occurrence of transmigrations (birth-cycles) of the soul due to these accumulated karmas.
Q. Why the word 'soul' (or self) has been used twice here in semiaphorism 2.10.1 in terms of 'karmas accumulated by soul' and 'transmigration of soul' ?
A. It is meant to denote that the soul is the actor of karmas and it is also the enjoyer of the karmas.
The Sankhyas contend that the actor is triad-qualitied Prakṛti and the enjoyer is the Purușa (or soul). This contention is not correct. The non-living Prakṛti cannot act for merit and demerit like the pots etc. Secondly, if one enjoys the results of actions of others, there will be possibility of non-liberation. There will also be the flaw of the loss of the earned. Thus, one should accept that the actor is the enjoyer.
There are five kinds of worldly cycles- (I) the cycle of matter (ii) the cycle of location (iii) the cycle of time (iv) the cycle of volitions or modes and (v) the cycle of births or rebirths. The worldly beings are those who undergo these five types of cycles of wanderings or transmigrations. (They have been described in details by Pujyapāda in his commentary named as Sarvārthasiddhi under 2.10, see notes later).
2.
The liberated beings are those who have destroyed the physical and psychical karmic bondages. The physical bond is the mattergic entity transformed into karmas and quasi-karmas. The psychical bond is the volition of anger, pride etc. originating due to physical bonds. The liberated beings are devoid of both these bonds. (These beings are also devoid of the above five types of worldly cycles).
3. Q. There should be the addition compound in this aphorism as it will shorten it due to the absence of the word 'ca' (and) denoting the same meaning. A. This is not correct. This compounding would have led to the different meaning and form of the aphorism 2.10. Had there been the addition compound in 2.10, the term 'Mukta' (liberated) would have to be placed first because it contains lesser number of vowels and it is more respectable than the worldly beings. Thus, the aphorism would have a different meaning altogether. This will mean those beings who have left the world or only the librerated beings. The worldly beings would not be included in the meaning. This would have an
91