Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 55

11. METAPHYSICAL BASIS OF JAINA ETHICS
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colour besides the above; and lastly, the five-sensed souls which ar less are endowed with the sense of hearing in addition, and those with mind possess all the ten Prānas. Thus the numbers of Prāṇas possessed by one-sensed to five-sensed souls are four, six, seven, eight, nine and ten respectively. The illustrations of the two-sensed souls are sea-snail, cowrie-shell-fish, conch-shell-fish, earth-worm etc. ;2 of the three-sensed souls are louce, bug, ant, etc.; of the four-sensed souls are gadfly, mosquito, fly, bee, beetle, dragon fly and butter fly;t of the five -sensed souls with ten Prānas are celestial, hellish and human beings and some subhuman souls;5 and of the five-sensed souls with nine Prāņas are only some sub-human souls. All the diverse mundane souls right up to foursensed ones are designated as non-rational or mindless (Asamjñi), whereas the five-sensed sub-human beings may be rational or non-rational, but the celestial, hellish and human beings are necessarily rational.? The rational souls may be recognised by the capability of being preached, of receiving instruction, and of voluntary action.S
Having dealt with the nature and kinds of the empirical self, we now proceed to discuss the nature of the ethical ideal, the Summum Bonum of hurnan life. This will also make clear the nature of the transcendental self. Just as the validity of the existence of self is incapable of being impugned, so the existence of the highest good is unquestionable. The empirical souls from the one-sensed to the four-sensed, as also some subhuman five-sensed ones are impotent to reflect on their own good in that state of existence. They are not endowed with that type of understanding which may assist them in absolving themselves from the thraldom of Karman. Such being the overwhelming effect of Karman, their progress to the higher grades of existence is decided by 'time'. But the human souls, being possessed of mind, can ponder over the objective to be aimed at for their beneficence and can achieve the highest good. The possibility of the realisation of the supreme good is the possibility of a free, sacred, immortal, human life, which ends the transmigratory existence and its attendant evils. The Tīrthamkaras are the concrete examples of such achievement.
1 Sarvārtha. II-14. 2 Pañcā. 114. 3 Ibid. 115. Ibid. 116. 5 Pañca. 117 and Comm. Amrta.
Ibid. (In all these references from 2 to 6 vide Chakravarti's translation of Pañcīsti• kaya.)
7 Pañcā. Comm. Amfta. 117. 8 Gomma. Ji. 660.