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ACTIVITY AND ITS CONTROL
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PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Before discussing different types of physical activity let us take into account the nature and kinds of physique itself. It has already been mentioned that the root cause of the entire structure of our body is the physique-making karma. What are the varieties of this karma and what is their nature, all this has been recorded in the chapter dealing with the fundamentals of the Jaina doctrine of karma. It is needless to repeat it here. We shall confine ourselves to the five types of bodies only. According to Jaina conception, matter is the material cause of body. It adopts various forms in the shape of different types of bodies. It is also a fact that different types of bodies require different kinds of material particles. There are five groups of such particles. They are technically known as ähäraku-vargaņā, tejo-varganā, bhāṣā-varganā, mano-varganā, and kārmana-varganā. We know that the Jaina recognizes five types of bodies: gross, transformable, projectable, electric, and karmic. 1 Of them, the first three types are formed of the first group of material particles. The second group forms electric body. Karmic body which is the root cause of all physical and mental media of activity is composed of the last group. The composition of mind and speech, as has already been mentioned, is dependent upon the mano-vargaņā and bhāṣā-vargaņā respectively.The following are the chief characteristics of the five kinds of bodies:
The organic body of human beings, plants, and animals is called gross body. It is full of blood, bones, flesh, etc. It is this type of body what we generally understand to be physical and visible. That which is possessed by the beings of heaven and hell (with which we are not interested here) and by the human beings as well having an extraordinary power (labdhi) is known as transformable body. It is invisible to the normal vision and is capable of transformation into different shapes, sizes, etc. The third kind consists of those subtle bodies that are developed by the advanced ascetics. This type of body can be projected to great distances on certain special occasions. The electric body is composed of fiery
1 These bodies can be compared with the three bodies--kārana, sūksma,
and sthūla or avidyā, linga, and sthūla in Sāńkhya-Yoga and
Vedānta and also with the Astral Body in Parapsychology, 2 Jiva-kāņda, 606-8. 19
