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Dr. Subhash C. Jain : Transmigration, Evolution and Jain Karma Doctrine
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Living beings in every gati occur in a wide range of bodies that differ in shape, size, color, touch, taste, smell, and the number and the potentiality of their vital powers (prāņa)". The physical development/ deterioration, termed evolution/devolution, of the life-form of living beings can be characterized by the number or the potency of the vital powers of their bodies. It should be emphasized that term evolution/ devolution in this paper carries a specific connotation which is quite distinct from that of the term used by Charles Darwin2. The evolution/devolution of the life form occurs on increasing/decreasing the number of vital powars or the potency of the vital powers. It is hypothesized that the evolution/devolution of the life form of living beings is governed by the “load” of their attached karma, termed karmic load, defined later. Based on this hypothesis a conceptual scheme between the number or the potency of the vital powers and the karmic load of living beings is presented to explain their evolution from a less developed to a more developed life-form and their devolution from a more developed to a less developed life form. The conceptual scheme also identifies the categories of living beings that transmigrate from one gati to another. Living Beings :
Living beings possess a soul and three or four types of physical bodies. The types of physical bodies are: gross body (audārikaśarīra); protean body (vaikriya-sarīra); "coveyance” body (āhārakaśarīra); fiery body (taijasa-sarīra); and karmic body (kārmaņaśarīra),': A living being always has a fiery and a karmic body in the state of bondage. A living being can also have at the most two other bodies. A living being can have either gross or protean body, not both. Human and subhuman beings have a gross body; and infernal and celestial beings have a protean body. Only an ascetic can create for a short duration a “conveyance” body. Hence living beings, except some ascetics, have three physical bodies. All living beings have identical souls, but they different gross or protean, fiery, and karmic bodies.
The gross or protean body of living beings has vital powers sprāņa) of physical senses, physical actions, respiration, and age. 14
