Compendium of Jainism

Author(s): T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar

Page 89

THE UNIVERSE
77
The soul is a reality. Its chief characteristic is consciousness. It possesses the quality of Upayoga which is made up of the qualities of Jñāna and Darsana, that is, knowledge and perception. The Jiva is the agent of all actions and occupies the size of the body which is the result of its karmas from the smallest to the
iggest. Since a body grows from a microscopical size in the mother's womb to its full proportions when it comes out of it and contracts again at the end of its earthly career, to reincarnate into a new seed, it follows that the size of the soul cannot remain fixed. Modern science identifies life with protoplasm or a living cell. It is well known that protoplasm possesses a remarkable property of contraction under external stimuli. The soul experiences pleasure, pain, life and death through the agency of Karmic matter. 3
Pudgala, which word is peculiar to the Jaina philosophy, means matter and energy. Pudgala has form and rūpa or shape and the qualities of touch, taste, smell and colour. The substance of Pudgala has its modifications and they are sound, union, fineness, grossness, shape, division, darkness, image, lustre and heat.4 The word Pudgala is comprehensive to include all kinds of matter : solids, liquids, gases, energy and fine Karmic matter etc. Einstein has proved that energy has mass but no form. The Jaina thinkers regarded energy as matter and divided matter into skandhas, aņus and paramāņus whicb correspond to molecules, atom and electron respectively. The union of electrons and positrons to form different kinds of matter is attributed to the differences in the degrees of snigdha (viscous) and rūkņa (dry) properties of the particles.
There is an inifinite number of souls which fill the universe. Such souls are either mundane (saṁsārin) or liberated (mukta): The mundane souls include all beings living in the world; they are entangled with matter of subtle Karmas. The living beings are divided according to the number of senses they possess. The five senses are : touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Beings possessing only one organ of touch are plants. Examples of