Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

Page 105

Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
105
As far as matter is concerned, at the level of large masses, gravitation comes in to play and formations of planets, galaxies and largest structures including the universe is primarily governed by gravitational force although within each system, electromagnetic and nuclear forces also play a role.
According to Jainism, body has a multilayered structure; the physical body is the gross form and the karman body is the subtlest form, as mentioned in chapter 5. The various aggregates, called vargan's, should be able to form the five types of bodies, Karman (causal), Tejas (energy),,hraka (conscious), Vaikriya (form) and Audrika (physical) bodies. These five bodies are formed by five types of aggregates, known after their names: i.e. karman varga 1, tejas varga a 1, h raka varga a 1, vaikriya varga a 1 and audrika varga a 1. Beisdes these five vargans, three other important vargan's are manovarga a 1 (mind vargana: for formation of thought and mind), swichosy is (breathing varga a 2) and bh+sh (speech vargan :). The five bodies postulated by Jains may be compared with the three bodies (Dharmakly! (conscious body), Sambhogk?y? (transcendental body) and Nirmink?y? (physical or experiencing body)) mentioned in Buddhism or the five bodies in Hinduism: Annamaya (Gross physical body), getting its energy from food (Anna); Prinmaya (Breathing body), getting its energy from breathing; Manomaya, (mental body) getting its energy from learning, Vijn 'namaya (intelligence or discriminating body), supported by daran and nandmaya (bliss body or consciousness) getting its energy from meditation. All these bodies are mutually interacting and supporting each other. All the three faiths, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism agree that the conscious body is the ground, seed or foundation on which the edifice of the physical body stands.
The Jain universe consists of jiva and ajiva. The parama au and soul are the smallest, separate and distinct entities, neither forming from the other, but interacting with each other, none the less, and giving rise to the whole universe by association and dissociation, by formation and breaking of aggregates. It begins with the dimensionless Param 1 aus forming clusters which grow sequentially. These clusters and aggregates, as mentioned above, are termed as varga a is. Although varg i das could be of many types, Jainism postulates 23 types of main vargais as follows: 1. Aau varga a 1 2. Sankhy tau (numerable) varga a 1 3. Asankhy 'ta au (innumerable) varga a 1