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SÚTRA 19
109
आहारवग्गणादो तिण्णि सरीराणि होंति उस्सासो। णिस्सासोवि य तेजोवग्गणखंधाद् तेजंगं ।। भासमणवग्गणादो कमेण भासा मणं च कम्मादो।
अट्टबिहकम्मदब्वं होदित्ति जिणेहि णिहिटूं।। 238 (Tr.-Matter is the cause of making of the bodies. One kind of molecules, called āhārakavargamă, form the first three types of bodies described on page 62 ante and the respiration. Electrical energy (tejo-vargaņā forms the fourth type, viz., the electrical body.
Speech and mind (mana) are constituted by another two specialized forms of matter-molecules called respectively Bhasăvargan, and mano-vargana. The inner subtle body (kārmana śarira) which is the seed of all mental and physical activities is made of eight kinds of karmic matter.
The fifth class (sūksma) out of the six sub-classes of matter (vide page 63 ante) has been further divided into five divisions called varganäs : āhāra vargană, taijasa varganā,bhāsa varganā, mano-varganā, kārmāņā varganā. This is a case of specialization of fine 'matter'. A similar specialization has been found in the case of protoplasmic cells of living matter. For instance, the great biologist, Arthur Dendy writes as follows:
“There is another point of view with regard to the living cell. It is not only the morphological or structural unit of the body but also the physiological or functional unit”240.
Human body has been estimated to contain 26 trillion cells but divided into groups, each group has a special function to perform. The group of cells, which constitutes the eye, cannot discharge the function of the auricular group and this differentiation cannot be explained unless we assume that matter constituting the various groups of cells is differentiated in some way.
Matter supports the process of respiration is clear from the following:
“Respiration, in the scientific acceptance of the term, is simply the exchange by the organism of the carbon-di-oxide gas which has been formed in the body in the process of combustion for the oxygen gas which is required for that combustion. It is there
238. Gommasa sära Jivakanda, 606-608.
234. It should be noted here that Jainism regards electrical as atomic and so it is.
240. Outlines of Evolutionary Biology (Arthur Dendy), p. 68.
