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Jainism and Jain Goal of Life
state. The Uttaradhyayana Sutru indicates: "completely purged, the soul takes the form of a straight line, goes in a simple moment, without touching anything and taking no space, goes upward to akasha,29 and there takes its natural form, obtains perfection, enlightenment, deliverance, and final beatitude, and puts an end to all the misery."30
The whole universe is made up of jivas and ajivas. Jivas are conscious and animate beings. Ajivas are non-conscious and non-living beings. Jivas have souls and bodies and the soul is distinct from the body. The body is composed of tattvas or the matrial elements, is ajiva, and is just connected to the soul. Ajivas are classified into two groups: arupa - those without form (e.g., dharma - principle of motion, adharma - principle of rest, akasha - principle of space, and kala - principle of time) and rupa - those with form (e.g., pudgala or matter). For every jiva in the universe, Jainism says that there are five ajivas. Both jivas and ajivas are from the very beginning and they are independent, uncreated, and eternal.31 The structure of the universe is atomic in nature.32
Life is pervasive and the whole universe throbs with life. There is life even in supposedly inanimate objects. A simple stone has life, as it has a soul to which is tightly enchained a material body. When kicked, the stone suffers pain. The same way, all living beings in the universe suffer pain, including animals, fish, birds, trees, insects, rocks, minerals, and others. All have life and all feel pain. "in every kind of existence, I have suffered pain, which has scarcely known reprieve," says a Jain verse. 33 Jains, therefore, emphasize ahimsa toward all living and non-living beings, in the whole universe, and in all aspects and phases of life. Ahimsa, therefore, is an endless struggle to avoid annihilation of even the most rudimentary forms of life. Jains believe that soul of each creature must be reborn one million times (eight of these in human form) on the path to moksha. Even gods must experience life as people 400,000 times. Daily life of a Jain, accordingly, is an unending effort to prevent destruction of other creatures in whatever shape and grade they may come. Daily effort is also
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