Jaina Ontology

Author(s): K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 67

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JAINA ONTOLOGY
(2) Bodily Activities
Several chapters of Prajñapanã are devoted to the problems related to body as such or bodily activities and we take them one by one.
(i) The chapter 12th (viz. Sarirapada) first enumerates the five types of bodies and then it takes up the 24 classes of living beings one by one in each case asking as to how many bodies of this or that type it possesses at present, how many of them it has possessed in the past; the first information is interesting because it incidentally gives us the supposed number of beings belonging to the class in question.
(ii) The chapter 21st (viz. Avagahanapada) treats the problem of bodily size. Here we are informed about the maximum and minimum bodily sizes possible in this or that class of living beings, then about the relative numerical strength of the five types of bodies, then about the relative numerical strength of the respective minimum sizes of the five types of bodies, lastly about the relative numerical strength of the respective maximum sizes of the five types of bodies.
(iii) The chapter 9th (viz. Yonipada) describes the respective birthplaces of the different classes of beings. A being's birth-place can be the mother's womb but it need not be so-for the supposition is that many classes of being (e.g. naraka, deva, ekendriya, dvindriya, trindriya, caturindriya, and even some pañcendriya do not come out of the mother's womb). We are told that a being's birth-place might be either hot or cold or mixed, either animate or inanimate or mixed, either concealed or revealed or mixed.
(iv) The chapter 7th (viz. Ucchvāsapada) describes for each class of beings the maximum interval possible between one breathing and another.
(v) The chapter 28th (viz. Āhārapada) describes for each class of being the maximum interval possible between one feeding and another. Again, a distinction has been made between pre-birth feeding, feeding through skin, feeding through mouth, feeding through sheer desire also between voluntary feeding and involuntary feeding. And we are told as to which class of beings undertakes which of these types of feeding. This chapter also deals at length with a problem which has only nominal relation with that of feeding. The supposition is that a being undertakes no feeding while in the process of transmigration from one body to the next and here we are asked about a number of properties whether they can be had by one who is undertaking no feeding; obviously, the question amounts to asking whether the properties in question can be possessed by one who is in the process of transmigration from one body to the next, a question that has nothing to do with feeding as such.
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