First Principal of the Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Hirachand Liladhar Zaveri
Publisher: Jaina Vividh Sahitya Shastramala

Page 30

THE JAIN PHILOSOPHY
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7. Equality of status, i.e. neither high-burn nor low-born saguru-laghu);
8. Infinite capacities of activity (virya).
The qualities of the soul are infinite or innumerable, but only these eight are mentioned here because the subject of discussion here is the eight karmas. The qualities of the soul are, in the mundane world (samsara), obscured by the foreign elements or energies in combination with the soul (karmas). There are eight karmas which respectively obscure the above-named eight qualities of the soul. These eight karmas are enumerated under bandha.
Living beings or souls (jiva) are divided into · (1) embodied (samsarin), (2) liberated (mukta). The
embodied living beings are again subdivided into; (a) stationary beings, like vegetable lives, etc. ( sthavara), having only one sense, the sense of touch (sparsa), and (b) moving living beings (trasa), having two or more of the five senses. There are further subdivisions, but to avoid prolixity they are not given here.
The second class of beings,those who are liberated, are figuratively divided into fifteen classes according to the nature of their final embodied condition.
The second principle is non-soul (ajiva), the