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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
leśyā. The former is thought-paint as explained while the letter is the product of body--making Karma. The beings in different states of existence have different bodily colours. The hellish beings are black while the other beings have any one of the six colours. The bodies in the uttama (supreme), madhyama (middle) and jaghanya (lowest) regions have the colours of the sun, the moon and green. The water-bodied, fire-bodied and air-bodied souls have white, yellow and indescribable coloured bodies.
The operation places (udaya-sthānas) of the passions are innumrable spatial units of the universe. The bad passions or the bad thought-paints are black, blue and grey while those of the good thoughts are yellow, pink and white. The bad thought paints are either intense, more intense, or most intense. Similarly the good ones are mild, milder or mildest. By the decrease or increase in the intensity of the bad or good thought activity or passions, the thought-paint becomes modified. By the increase of pain, the thought-paint becomes modified through' grey, blue and black. By the increase of the purity of the soul or good thoughts, the progress is through yellow, pink and white. It is thus clear that while the worst thought activity is black, the highest purity will disclose white. However, the Leśyās are more illustrative of the degree of intensity in terms of colour rather than actual colour.
Nemicandra Siddhānta Cakravarti has given a very illuminating example of the different thought-paints occasioned by the activities of the mind.6 Six travellers miss their way in the central part of a forest and see a tree laden with fruits. Naturally they have a desire to eat the fruits. The first one wants to uproot the entire tree and eat the fruits; he is actuated by black thoughtpaint. The second one wants to cut the trunk and eat the fruist, he is actuated by blue thought-paint. The third wishes to cut the branches and eat the fruits: he is actuated by the grey thoughtpaint. These three intended to cause great harm to the tree to get its fruits, though in differing degrees. The remaining were better type of individuals who desired to have their object fulfilled without destroying the generating parts of the tree. The fourth one wanted
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