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THE DOCTRINE OF LESYA
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however, followed a peculiar course in the interpretation of the doctrine. According to him the Buddhists or their Bhikşus were of the type of blue-class as there were amongst them preachers of ease who favoured the ways of comfort. The Nigganthas were regarded as being of the type of red-class as they had renounced the comfort. They were, however, regarded as inferior to Ajivika in adhering to the loin-cloth. He classified his lay adherents as of the type of yellow-paint and his staunch adherents as of the white type. 11
Buddhism also classified Karma in terms of colours : black, white, mixed black and white and not black and white. It does not seem to accept Karma as a subtle form of matter of minute particles. The Yoga school has adopted the same classification. Dasgupta suggests that the idea of black and white Karma in Yoga philosophy was probably suggested by the Jaina view. 15
Jainism does not propound that the soul itself becomes coloured by the Leśyās. The Leśyās are primarily associated with the Karmic matter whose reflection on the soul may be likened to the reflection of a coloured flower or object on a white crystal. It is interesting to mention that the Theosophists have also a theory of colouration related to passions and thought-activities. They say that there are three mortal bodies: the physical, the astral and the mental. The development of the astral body (sūkşma sarira) differs enormously in different persons; it is this body which yields the experience of pleasure and pain, which is thrown into action by passion, desire and emotion, and in which reside the centres of our sense organs of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. If the passion, desire and emotion are low, sensual and animal, then its matter is coarse, its vibrations are consequently and comparatively slow, and its colours are dark and unattractive-brown, dark red and greeen and their co with flashes of scarlet. The meaning of colours on the astral bodies, the pictures of which are said to have been drawn by an artist, to the descriptions given by clairvoyant investigators, has been
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