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system, his followers had to tackle such problems concerning life after death, hea ven, hell, etc; which gradually took the shape of the concepts of heaven, hell, and preta (dead, spirits, ghosts). The Bauddha Abhidhamma recognises three categories of being—belonging to the Kámāvacarabhūmi, Rūpāvacarabhūmi and Arūpā vacarabhūmi, of which there are many sub-divisions. Gods live in the Kamasugati portion of the first bhūmi and in the other bhūmis with their subdivisions. Hellish beings, lower beings, pretas, etc. live in the Apāyabhūmi of Kāmāyacara. * As to hells, we have eight hells enumerated in the Jātaka stories and each hell is said to have 16 sub-hells (upanaraka), so in all there are 128 hells (See Mahāvastu, 1.4). The tortures of hell are described in the Majjhima-Nikaya. +
Besides the denizens of heaven and hell, a class of beings called pretas (spirits, ghosts) are recognised by the Buddhists and we find interesting stories pertaining to them in the Petavatthu. These beings are born as pretas to experience the fruits of certain faults of theirs or even wicked actions, such as lack of faith while giving charity, etc, backbiting, stealing and murder. By doing good deads on this earth, people can help those pretas, who were their relatives in a previous life, by transferring their punya to them. These pretas manage to drag on existence by the food offerred to them by their human relatives on the occasion of festivals, etc; and become very unhappy if they are not remembered on such occasious. Different classes of pretas are recognised. I The Jainas do not believe, as said before, in the existence of pretas.
REALISM vs IDEALISM :
The Jainas are realists and pluralists. Their arguments against Nihilism are very succinctly given in Gañadharvāda, 4 which establishes the reality of the objective world. The arguments are all found together in that chapter and need not be dilated upon here.
* For details see: Abhidhammatthasangaha, 5. + See Balapaņdita-suttanta, 129. See.' Buddhist Conception of Spirits-Law.'
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