________________
COSMOS
133
group of 16 (or 12) heavens is usually divided into 8 (or 6) horizontal layers of pairs. The lowest two are situated only one hair's breadth above the top of Meru.
The inhabitants of the universe
We have seen that we ourselves, and those who are visible to our eyes, inhabit only an extremely small part of the universe, in the central part – Jambūdvīpa – of the Middle World. Around Jambūdvīpa are the other, related dvīpas or “planets," which are inhabited and more or less related to the ones we know, but still imperceptible because they differ in density of matter or time period from us. But even then we are speaking only of a thin slice in the "waist” of the universe - almost nothing compared to the whole knowable universe, which stretches many light-years above and below our planet. Jainism teaches that no square millimeter of the universe is uninhabited. The classification and ecology of Jainism include the whole universe. Apart from the liberated souls which live separated from the rest in the topmost section of the universe, all souls are a brotherhood of “pilgrims” which are identical in essence, but which due to their particular karmas go through experiences in various dimensions, and which clothe themselves in an endless variety of forms. At some time every soul passes through every region and every sub-region of the universe. The Tīrthamkara Mahāvīra pronounced some 2500 years ago the constitutional law of spiritual ecology by saying that all forms of life are connected in reciprocal support (“parasparopagraho jīvanam”). The whole universe is thus defined as an ecological unit.
The taxonomy of living nature in Jainism is in the first place based on the inner status of unfolding or moral development, and not primarily, as is the case in the West, on outer form. Above and apart from all other beings are the liberated souls, which in past times were bound to existence as we are, but are now freed from all karmas and therefore from all outer attributes. Those which have not yet reached
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
