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Metaphysics, Ethics and Spiritual Development
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ready to sacrifice his own life to save a dove that sought his refuge; similarly, King Dīlīpa was ready to sacrifice his own life to save a cow. But the Jaina religion strictly forbids all types of purposeless violence even though it is as slight as that involved in causing injury to a petal of a flower.
Plant beings are of two types—pratyeka and sādhāraṇa. Pratyeka plant beings are those that have separate plant-bodies--one body for one plant being. Sādhārana plant beings are those that have one common plant body. Plant beings which exist together with infinite others in a common plant body are called sādhārana plant beings. The bulbous roots, etc., are sādhāraņa (gross sādharana') plant beings. They illustrate the cases of infinite plant beings inhabiting one common plant-body. So this common plant body is called anantakāya (= 'a body inhabited by infinite beings or souls'). The life in the pratyeka plant beings is much more developed than that in the sādhārana plant beings.
Body and its Use
A body is a 'statue' made of bones, flesh, blood, fat, etc. It is filled with impurities like faeces, urine, etc. Such derogatory things are said of the body in order to generate and promote feelings of non-attachment and renunciation towards one's own body. From the scientific standpoint, we should admit that the body is made of those things which are most appropriate for it. It can never be made of things other than bones, etc. Nature is wiser than man. It is necessary to eat food and drink water for the maintenance and sustenance of the body. The food and drink we take contain substances useful as well as useless for the body. The body discharges the useless waste matter in the form of faeces, urine, etc., which are here called impurities. In other words, the body digests the useful and essential part of the food, transforms it into nutritive material, and separates and expels the waste and useless matter from the system. The body is a wonderful 'machine' which continuously keeps itself fit and efficient
1. The entire universe-space is thickly filled with the subtle sādhārana plant beings as
also with subtle earthbodied, waterbodied, firebodied and airbodied beings. The most subtle beings, that is, the subtle sadhārana plant beings exhibit not even the slightest struggle for life, that is, behaviour. Sādhārana plant beings are also called nigoda. So the subtle (süksma) sadharana plant beings are called 'sūksma-nigoda', and the gross (sthula) sådhārana plant beings are called sthūla-nigoda (bādara-nigoda).
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