Defiition of Living in Jain Cannons An Evaluation

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Z_Umravkunvarji_Diksha_Swarna_Jayanti_Smruti_Granth_012035.pdf

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Definition of the Living in Jaina Connons : An Evaluation / 367
denaturation, mutation or elimination. The philosophers could think a conceptual difference between the pure and worldly living. The scientists are, however, not in a position to prove this. They have only one type of living unit--the worldly one about which the pbilosophers have described the same way as the scientists. Lodha 72 refers to Jivabhigama, Pannavana and Bhagvati to show that about eight important scientific characteristics of the living are included in the concept of paryaptis and prapas as given in the Table-5. The prana of age may mean death. As before, irritablity may be the first stage of consciousess.
Despite the fact that cannonical eternality of pure living does not involve birth, growth, reproduction and death phenomena, the worldly one does have these characteristics of life as shown in Bhagvati. The common man experiences these facts as he finds there could be no new worldly living entity until it has birth through any of the processes. Besides birth, the cannons have aslo described the growth and death phenomena. Summing up the contents spread over in different Jaipa cannons, it is found that all the scientifically essential characteristics of the living are traceable there and they seem to have mostly material approach, It may be added, however, that the scientists idea about the material nature of the living seems to have recieved a setback from many types of analytically reported parapsychological phenomena and accounts of previous lives in many cases. 73 However, Khushwant Singh 74 categorically denies the correctness of these descriptions mentioning this as the basic cause for the closure of the para-psychology dept. of Rajasthan University in the later seventh decade.
All scholars appreciate the cannonical contents about the definition of the living on the basis of current biological findings. It seems, however, that these contents mostly refer to externally observed facts. They keep mum over the why and how of these facts. They tell the five bodies to be visually 'gross and fine, but there is nothing about their physical or chemical composition or their physiological functions. They have seen respirations but there is nothing about the nature and compositions of the inhaled or exhaled gases or substances. It is said that matter or food affects the functions, activities or emotions of the living, but its structural causation is missing. These examples may be multiplied. It is possible to conclude that cannons represent an age of physical observations and of mental conceptualisations. The current age represents an era of experimentation and internal and external examination with the help of physical senses and finer instruments giving us better insight into various aspects of life.
Of course, the observation power of the Jaina seers seems to be quite advanced over other contemporary philosopbies. The experimental age has given us a deeper understanding and clarity of cannonically observed facts. In most cases, they have been verified and supported but in some cases these
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