Jainism

Author(s): M R Gelra
Publisher: Createspace

Page 97

The concept of one-sensed souls brought a revolutionary change in the conduct of Jain monks. They took special care to avoid killing or hurting any of these five one-sensed souls. This concept of Ahimsa distinguished the Jain doctrine from the rest.
Let us now go into greater depth of one-sensed souls and their animated nature.
1. Jain Scriptures The Jain scriptures mainly Acharanga, Uttardhayana, Dassvakalik, and Jivajiv Vibhakti acknowledge the existence of one-sensed souls. The one-sensed being bodies of the earth, water, fire, air and plants are immobile living beings.
Acharanga Sutra logically describes in detail that one sensed living beings have a sensation of pain and grief if any weapon is used against them. To maintain the purity of the environment, Jain scriptures advice against the indiscriminate use of water, plants, trees and minerals.
Classification It is well known that a human body has five senses; Ear, eye, nose, tongue and skin. Their characters are as follows: • Ear to Hear
Eye to See Nose to Smell
Tongue to Taste • Skin to Touch.
It is through our senses that we experience the consciousness of life. The more keen our senses are, the more alive we feel, the more joy, pleasure, pain, grief, ecstasy we feel that brings along the continuum of our life. Jain philosophy provides sensory-based classification of living beings as follows:
Five senses: Touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing belong to Human beings, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians and mammals.
Four senses: Touch, taste, smell and sight belong to wasps, flies. Gnats, mosquitoes, butterflies etc.
Three senses: Touch, taste and smell belong to ants, fleas, lice, insects, etc.
Two senses: Touch and taste belong to Worms, leeches, snails and marine mollusks.
One sense: Physical sense of touch belongs to earth, water, fire, wind and vegetation. Living beings with One-sense are of five types.
Prithvikaya: Earthly bodies. They are in solid state.