Jain Journal 1969 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 13

JANUARY, 1969
Substance is divided into the sentient beings, matter, dharmastikaya (fulcrum of motion), adharmastikāya (fulcrum of stability or rest), space and time. Living beings are divided into six classes: earthbody beings, water-body beings, fire-body beings, wind-body beings, vegetables and trasas, all of them except the last having one organ of sense, that of touch. Trasas are again divided into four classes of beings; beings having two organs of sense, those of touch and of taste, such as tapeworms, leeches, etc.; beings having three organs of sense, those of taste, touch and smell, such as ants, lice, etc.; beings having four organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell and sight, such as bees, scorpions, etc; beings having five organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. These last are human beings, animals, birds, men and gods. All these living beings have four, five or six of the following capacities capacity of taking food, capacity of constructing body, capacity of constructing organs, capacity of respiration, capacity of speaking and capacity of thinking. Beings having one organ of sense, that is, of touch, have the first five capacities, while those having five organs have all the six capacities.
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The Jaina canonical book treats very elaborately of the minute divisions of the living beings, and their prophets have, long before the discovery of the microscope, been able to tell how many organs of sense the minutest animalcule has.
I shall now refer to the four states of existence. They are nāraka, tiryaka, manuşya and deva. Nāraka is the lowest state of existence, that of being a denizen of hell; tiryaka is the next, that of having an earth-body, water-body, fire-body, wind-body, vegetable, of having two, three or four organs, animals and birds. The third is manusya, of being a man; and the fourth is deva, that of being a denizen of the celestial world. The highest state of existence is the Jaina mokşa, the apotheosis in the sense that the mortal being by the destruction of all karma attains the highest spiritualism, and the soul being severed from all connection with matter regains its purest state and becomes divine.
Having briefly stated the principal articles of Jaina belief, I come to the grand questions the answers to which are the objects of all religious inquiry and substance of all creeds.
What is the origin of the universe?
This involves the question of God. Gautama, the Budhda, forbids inquiry into the beginning of things. In the Brahmanical literature