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A PROBLEM IN JAIN BIOLOGY 169 punishes and corrects the erring humanity. Hence a belief in God is essential for good conduct.
Also by strict logic just as several tangible influences in this world are necessary for good conduct, so also in the unknown, unseen and intangible life of one in this same world God is essential for good conduct. I have opened this subject with the hope of getting from our readers further, better and scientific reasons for and against the subject.
J. N. RAMANATHAN.
A PROBLEM IN JAIN BIOLOGY. IN the joint-issue of " Jain Jagat" for July and August the
learned editor of the paper raised a momentous question in connection of Jain theories of reproduction in lower creatures. According to the latter there does not exist any physiological differentiation between males and females in the order of animals which possess less than five senses of perception nor do they function as such. In the most authoritative works on Jain metaphysics it is mentioned that creatures, beginning from the lowest order upto the four-sensed beings (viz., those possessing skin, nose, tongue, and eyes but not ears) are asexual and possess no diffentiative organs of reproduction. Now, on the authority of a Sanskrit verse occurring in Padmapurana Chap. XV. the editor of Jain Jagat has rightly challenged the above views. The verse relerred to describes ir. explicit terms the amorous dalliance between a male and a female black-bee. A black-bee (Bhramara) is an animal with four-senses, according to Jain philosophers. Ravishenacharya, the author of Padmapurana, is one of the standard authorities in Jainism and therefore his words cannot be taken lightly. It cannot be granted that the learned Acharya wrote it merely out of poetic fancy for thereby he would be running against one of the most vital principles of Jain Siddhant of which he could not be ignorant.
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
