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COSMOLOGY
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is in the nature of the grades and classes of the beings that their behaviour is limited, and correspondingly their lessā moves within certain ranges (Pannav. 343 b; Thân. 115a, 237b), so that beings of hell, fire, wind and lower animals will not reach beyond the third (grey) lessā and all remaining onesensed beings not beyond the fourth (yellow). It may be noted that even female gods will not reach farther, whereas their male partners have all six and those of the highest standing but the last three. Also humans and five-sensed animals are capable of all lessā.1 The way how a lessā passes over into another one (parinamai) is explained by comparisons in Pannav. 358 b.
The qualities determining a lessā are represented in Utt. 34 along with the whole of their theory. We need not quote from Pannav 17 in which way the five kinds of cognition divide among the bearers of the six lessā (Pannav. 357 a), but we have to point out that though the Kevalin during his stay on earth (sajogi kevali) still has the white lessā,2 the Sıddha has no longer any of it. That is why in the canonical expositions, eg. Viy. 40b, the salessā are particularly mentioned wherever circumstances ask for it. The ohi-cognition so characteristic of the beings of hell extends the farther the brighter the lessā is, just as from the top of a mountain we see farther than from any point in a plain (Pannav. 355a). Things are different with the Karman: as said by Vıy. 300b, a being may have a darker lessā with a lesser Karman and a brighter one with a stronger, 1.e. when the owner of the darker lessā has annihilated his Karman stronger in itself down to a remainder smaller than the whole Karman of the owner of a brighter lessā. So in Vy. the explanation of the text words thuim paducca.
$99. The Actions. In the passages above the word kamma signified the “action" in a metaphysical respect. We can
1 Thus Thãn 175 a distinguished the act of dying as a thiya-, samkrliffha- and pajjavajaya-lesa, according as in the existence to come the lessä remains the same, grows dim or brightens (v KAMPTZ, Sterbefasten p 15)
2. That is why the favourable lessä becomes still purer (pasatthão lesão uisujthamanio when Malli attains the highest grade of cognition (Nāyādh, 152 b).
