Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 84

77
(3) There are five elements and the soul is a sixth substance. These six substances are imperishable and eternal by their very nature.1
(4) Pleasure, pain, and final beatitude are not caused by the souls themselves, but the individual souls experience them. It is the lot assigned to them by destiny.
Some beings have motion, others not. It depends on certain conditions whether they are in the one state or in the other 2
(5) The world has been created or is governed by the gods.
TEACHINGS
It has been created or is governed by Brahman. It has been created or is governed by Iśvara.
It has been created by Svayambhu.
It is produced from the primeval egg, and Brahman created the things.
It is produced from chaos."
(6) The world is boundless and eternal, it exists from eternity and does not perish.
It is limited, but eternal. The knowledge of the highest being is unlimited. It is limited in every way
•
1 Sūtrakṛtānga, I, 1 1. 15-16
2 Ibid., I, 1. 2. 2, 3; I, I 4.8
3 Ibid., I, 1. 3. 5-8, Jaina-Sutras, Part II.
• Ibid, I, I. I. 17.