Essentials of Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Nyayavijay, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Nyayavijay Nagin J Shah

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born again - suffers any harm. Scriptures say that the total number of souls in the world get reduced by the number of souls that attain liberation, yet the world will never be empty of souls because the souls in the world are ananta or infinite in number.
The term ananta is explained as follows: the minutest indivisible unit of time is called *samaya' in the Jaina scriptures. Samaya is so minute a time unit that it is impossible for us to know how many samayas pass in a second. If we take all the samayas, past and present their number comes to infinite times infinite. The number of souls in the world is equal to that of infinite-time infinite samayas. Hence there is no possibility at the entire world becoming empty of souls at any time.
Friends practically speaking soul can attain liberation by good karmas. With so much evil and violence in this world, the number of souls attaining liberation can only go down.
Classification of Souls Generally souls are divided into samsari or transmigratory & mukta or liberated souls. The word 'samsara' is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root 'srl prefixed with the preposition 'sam'. The meaning of the root 'sr' is 'to go, to wander, to transmigrate'. So the meaning of samsara is 'wandering transmigration'. To wander, to transmigrate in 84 lakh birth types is samsara and one who does so is samsari.
We can classify the transmigratory souls in various ways. In one way, they are divided into two main clauses - mobile (trasa) and immobile (sthavara). Those who can voluntarily move from one place to another in order to seek pleasure and avoid pain are mobile. And the opposite are immobile. The earth-water-fire-air & plant bodied souls are immobile. They have one sense organ, which is invariably a tactile one. Called onesensed souls they are further sub-divided into subtle and gross class. The subtle five bodied immobile souls are present everywhere in the universe but we cannot see them.
The gross five bodied immobile souls are amenable to visual perception. Souls whose bodies are various forms of earth like clay, stone are to be understood as gross earthbodied souls. Souls whose bodies are various forms of water i.e. well-river-pond water which are not attacked by fire or not influenced by any other substance are gross bodied souls. A tree and its branches, twigs etc are gross plant bodied souls.
When the above mentioned forms of living earth are attacked by cutting, colliding, piercing and baking souls depart from them making them lifeless. So also when water is boiled or mixed with sugar it becomes dead and soulless
The two sensed souls have two sense organs only and these two are invariably tactile and gustatory. An earthworm, a microbe found in water are examples of two-sensed souls. Three sensed souls have three sense organs namely tactile, gustatory and olfactory e.g. a bug, a large red ant. Four sensed souls have four sense organs namely fly, mosquito etc. Five sensed souls have five sense organs, are divided into four classes - humans, animals, that of gods dwelling in heavens and that of infernal being dwelling in hells.
Thus all mobile souls are two-three-four or five sensed souls.