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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
living. This can roughly be compared with the western division of nature into organic and inorganic, but the boundaries are very different in Jainism. Non-living, i.e. soulless nature, is divided into space, time, extension, movement, rest, and matter (pudgala). Most western scientists will agree that matter is non-conscious and non-living, but this idea deviates from most other great systems of thought. Matter, say the Jains, consists of atoms that have the property of being either rough or smooth, which combine into molecules, which are geometrical arrangements of atoms. This also is in agreement with modern chemistry. But what is important is that Jainism distinguishes several grades of matter: besides the physical matter of which our bodies and the perceptible things around us are composed, there are four other grades, which are the types of matter of which invisible bodies are composed. There is not only a physical body, but also what they call a “fluidic” body34 of which the bodies of celestial and hellish beings are composed, an assimilative body (which can only be projected by saints), a fire or electric body, and a karmic body. The last two, the electric and the karmic body, are possessed by all creatures, primitive or highly evolved, and these have always (“from the beginningless past”) been connected with the soul. Only liberated, pure souls are “naked” souls, without any garment. They have no more karma. Each of the five types of bodies is built of matter - of molecules - but of an ever more subtle nature. The karmic body is the most subtle and is built of karmic molecules. These are the molecules that are attracted to the soul by the activities of the mind and the emotions and adhere to it. Thus arises bandha, karmic bondage between soul and matter. The soul is obscured, masked, as it were, and therefore prevented from shining in its full glory.
We know that the number of molecules of chemistry that exist or could exist is virtually unlimited. Then how many more possibilities might be available for the much subtler karmic chemistry? The Jain doctrine on karma pudgala (karmic matter) could give an explanation for the innumerable
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