Jain Spirit 2001 12 No 09

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 61

Loka - The Jain Universe
PAULE WALTER COLLECTION
This account of the loka can scarcely do justice to Jain cosmography, a branch of technical learning of such intricacy that even the polymath Hemachandra seems to have occasionally lost his way within it. However, the incorporation of a stylist representation of the loka into the common symbol of the Jain religion which was adopted in 1975 and the recent expenditure of large sums of money by both the Digambara and Shvetambara communities to construct scale replicas of the loka at Hastinapur and Palitana respectively suggest that it is not a matter of purely esoteric interest or eccentric theorising run riot but of enduring significance for all Jains.
From a doctrinal point of view the purpose of the loka is obvious. It provides a framework within which the manifold nature of human destiny can be structured, a backdrop for a vast narrative literature of pious exemplification and a focus for contemplation. The massive dimensions of the loka and the insignificant space occupied by the karmabhumis also serve as a reminder of the rarity and value of human birth and the limited confines in which serious religious activity can be conducted. However, some broader understanding of the function of the loka might be gained by comparing it with another ancient cosmography, that of Manichaeism.
Mani, the founder of Manichaeism from the third century, is usually associated with the promulgation of a simple ethical model which centres around the struggle between light and darkness, the two positive and negative forces in the universe.
A similar process can most likely be seen at work in Jainism. The classical description of the loka provided by the Jain cosmographers, while admittedly drawing on material also found in Hinduism, is uniquely Jain and is one which, when linked with the Universal History, provides a fully and internally consistent picture of the universe. In this the only values which hold sway are those of Jainism and is thus an emblem of religious identity and separateness through which the Jains could differentiate themselves from other religions.
Jains react to their religion's cosmography in different ways. Some, especially ascetics uninfluenced by western-style education, have been happy to accept it as an exact portrayal of reality, while others have struggled to reconcile their knowledge of terrestrial geography with the statements of the ancient texts (there has been a recent instance of a monk returning to the laity for this reason). However, most Jains would on reflection be happy to subscribe to two cosmographical systems, one relating to the everyday transactional world and the other to the more profound symbolic realm of religion.
Cosmic man - Lokapurusha, cl775, Rajasthan, India successively darker, more dismal and unpleasant where hellbeings suffer grievously at each other's hands and through the tortures inflicted by their demonic jailers. Underneath the bottommost hell there are no habitations of any sort, only clouds.
Above the Middle World is a series of heavens of increasing brightness whose divine inhabitants lead lives of pleasure reminiscent of those of earthly monarchs. However, these gods should not be regarded as objects of adoration. Indeed, their situation is ultimately profoundly unsatisfactory since after the disappearance of their stock of merit, which enabled them to be reborn as gods, they will fall from heaven. The torment endured by hellbeings is similarly finite and after lengthy expiation in hell rebirth must ensue at some point.
Above the heavens and at the very crown of the loka is "The Slightly Curving Place", Ishatpragbhara, which is shaped like a parasol and where the liberated and disembodied souls live experiencing pure knowledge and bliss without any further rebirth
Paul Dundas is Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh. The above article is extracted from Paul Dundas 'book "The Jains" published by Routledge.
December 2001 - February 2002. Jain Spirit
57