________________
118
INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
In addition there is a type of karmas which again shows that many objects which westerners usually regard as inorganic are for the Jains expressions of life. An example is the “radiating heat” an object can possess which is bearable for the owner, but unbearable for others (glowing iron, for example). A separate karma applies to phosphorescence, as seen in fireflies. Then there are karmas in relation to respiration, or connected with gracious or clumsy flight in the air.
According to Jainism a body can be inhabited by more than one soul – a potato for example. Cut a potato into pieces, put them in the ground, and as many potato plants may come up. A mango however has only one. And of course there is a type of karma which determines whether the soul will live life in an immobile (fixed) body, such as that of plants and minerals, or in a mobile body.
The following eight karmas determine whether a body looks attractive or repulsive to others, and whether it brings forth pleasant sounds or unpleasant, harsh sounds (compare a nightingale and a donkey), or whether the body will look beautiful or ugly and is of refined or coarse physiognomy.
Then two types of karma are mentioned which determine whether an individual and its organs will grow into adulthood or whether it will die before it has reached adulthood. These karmas determine whether the soul will appear to be able to bring the features and powers of the body in which it is born to full expression. The actual process of growing towards and into adulthood is the process of transformation of subtle and chemical elements in agreement with the pattern laid out by the karmic molecules, which are drawn to the location where the respective organs are to be formed. For example the molecules which determine the power of inhalation and exhalation transform themselves into the respiratory system. So breathing is not a function of the respiratory system, but it is the other way round: the karmic desire and the energy to breath are the cause of the development of the organs involved in respiration.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
