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We shall now discuss about the Nourishment (of animals) in the scriptures and in Zoology.
A significant difference between the dissertation given in Sūtrakānga Sūtra and the other two scriptures is the importance given to nourishment of the organisms here, while this aspect is totally absent in the other two. Organisms on planet earth are chemical beings, whose organic- bodies are made up mainly of carbon compounds. Body of one organism (or its parts) would provide nourishment for another organism.
Scriptures assert that all organisms without exception, mobile as well as immobile, must take nourishment for survival. Food is of three kindsanimate, inanimate, and mixed.
Animate food refers to the intake of live organisms. This is of six kinds:
a. Earth-bodied organisms are taken in the form of minerals b. Water-bodied organisms are taken in the form of raw water c. Fire-bodied organisms are taken in through skin d. Air-bodied organisms are taken in through skin e. Plants & their parts are taken in as vegetables, fruit etc. f. Mobile orgtanisms are taken in by carnivores
Inanimate food consists of the bodies of organisms (from which the soul has transmigrated) mixed with inorganic substances.
Scriptures specify three ways of the intake of nourishment:
“Oja āhāra'—When a soul arrives at the place of its metempsychosis, it is bereft of a physical body, but is accompanied by the subtle bodies. To build up the physical body for the new life, it unites with the bodybuilding matter---earth or water or ovule or the fertilized cell-which is consistent with its new life. This initial intake of the body-building matter, which would become its new body is oja āhāra.
‘Loma āhāra' or ‘Roma āhāra'—Intake of nourishment through (the pores of) skin or the sense-organ of touch is loma āhāra. Intake of sunlight
JAIN BIOLOGY
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