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happens." The result is attachment to family and other worldly things, and so the cycle goes on.
The animals and plants (tiryanch) experience somewhat less misery than hell-beings do, or at least this seems to be true of the five-sensed animals. However, birth anywhere in the tiryanch category is extremely undesirable. Their natural place of habitation is the world-disc, but they can live in many areas barred to human beings.
Human beings experience more happiness and less sorrow than those in the tiryanch category. As noted already, humans occupy only the restricted central area of the world-disc; they are distributed, of course, between the two moral zones of karmbhumi and bhogbhumi. The humans in bhogbhumi are born as twins of the same sort that exist in our world during the paradisiacal age: their lives are spent in sensuous enjoyment, and liberation is impossible for them. Humans can be either womb-born (garbhaj) or born by spontaneous generation (sammurchim). The latter are generated from various impurities (such as excrement, urine, phlegm or semen) produced by the bodies of womb-born humans. They are without intelligence and cannot be detected with the senses; their bodies measure an uncountably small part of a finger's breadth. They die within forty-eight minutes (one antarmuhurt) without being able to develop the full characteristics of a human body. Certain rules of the ascetic discipline are based on the injunction to avoid harming these beings. For example, after eating, some ascetics and extraorthoprax laymen drink the liquid residue from washing their hands, plates and bowls. This is to prevent in the meal's remains the spontaneous generation of millions of little replicas of themselves, for whose deaths they would then be responsible. Just as the category of multiple-souled plants invest Jain vegetarianism with a distinctive character, this category provides the basis for certain distinctive features of Jain asceticism.
The truly crucial fact about human existence, however, is that liberation is possible only in a human body. As we know, liberation is not possible for all humans, but it is possible only for humans. This is a fact with momentous consequences.
The gods and goddesses are, in some ways, mirror images of the hell-beings. Hell-beings are being punished for their sins; the gods and goddesses are being rewarded for their virtuous acts in previous existences. It is sufficient to note that
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the gods and goddesses, as well as the hell-dwellers, are stratified. The lowest are those who dwell in buildings and live in the uppermost of the seven hells but are not subjected to hellish torments (bhavanvasis). Residing in an intermediate level between the uppermost level of hell and the earth are deities (vyantars) who inhabit jungles and caves. They can help human beings, but can be malicious,
too. The planetary deities (jyotisk) dwell in the region between the earth and the heavens above. They belong to two basic categories: moving and stationary.
The most important deities are the vaimaniks, so named because they inhabit heavenly places (vimans) of various kinds. They too are divided into two
P
BIOLOGY WAS CRITICAL
Cosmic Man (Lokapurusha) a visual representation of the Jain cosmos and life forms, Rajasthan 1884, from 'Peaceful Liberators - Jain Art from India'
basic types. Lowest are the kalpopapans, those who are born in paradises (kalpas). Residing in palaces above the kalpopapan deities are the kalpatit deities (without kalpas) who are of two kinds: the graiveyaks, who dwell in nine palaces above the topmost of the palaces and the annuttars, who live in five palaces higher still. The kalpopapan deities perform the celebrations of the Tirthankaras' kalyanaks. They also live in organised societies in which there are kings, ministers, bodyguards, villagers, townsmen, servants, and so on. The kalpatit deities do not participate in rituals and are not socially organised. Goddesses are found dwelling only in the first and second heavens of the kalpopapan deities and below, although they may visit higher levels, sexual relations become progressively etherealised: from mere touch, to sight, to hearing, to thought and finally to no sexual activity at all.
The Indras are the kings of the gods. There are sixtyfour of them in total: twenty who rule the bhavanvas is, thirty-two for the vyantars (and a subcategory known as van vyantars), two for the jyotisks, and ten for the twelve paradisiacal regions. The Indras and the Indranis, their consorts, are symbolically central to ritual action among
Jains.
Extract from the book 'Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture' by Lawrence A Babb. Published by Motilal Banarsidass, First Indian Edition 1998, copyright University of California Press.
December 2002 February 2003 Jain Spirit 59
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