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Microcosmology : Atom (viii) Manaḥ or Mānasa Vargaņā
Manaḥ means mind. According to Jains, mind is an instrument of thinking which a soul makes for itself out of material bodies and becomes capable of thinking through its agency. The material in this group is fit for this purpose.
It is to be noted that a composite body of the group successively consists of greater number of paramānus which are more compactly packed and thus occupy less space. Thus, a body of āhāraka varganā is more compact and occupies less space than a body of vaikri ya vargaņā which itself is more densely packed in comparison with a body of audārika varganā.
F. Twenty-Three Types
In Jain Canonical literature, its commentaries, and other literature, most of the above eight important categories are generally included in twenty-three types. Beginning from most minute paramānu varganā and ending with the largest achittamahāskandha-varganā, there are infinite number of groups of pudgala. But it is possible to reduce the number of varganās to twenty-three by grouping them together from certain aspects!
1. In the first category, there are free (unattached) solitary paramānus, which form "anu varganā”.
2. The second category contains composite bodies (skandha) composed of from two paramānus to the limit of "numerable paramāņus."
3. We, then, come to the category of composite bodies made up of "innumerable (asamkhyāta) paramānus".
4. Next comes the category of the composite bodies constituted by "infinite (ananta) paramāņus".
All these four categories are incapable of being attracted, assimilated and transformed by the psychical order of existence. It has been emphasized that it is an immutable physical law of the universe that the quality of associability is for ever absent in the 1. (a) Gom., Jīva-kānda; verses 594, 595;
(6) Dhavali, book XIV, part V, VI, sūtra 97, verses 7,8. p. 117.
