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CONCEPTION OF MATTER
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We can perceive only the first of these five kinds with our sense-organs. The remaining bodies are subtle. The succeeding body is subtler than the preceding one in order. The taijasa and kārmaņa bodies are not obstructed by any material form. They are beyond any kind of check and can travel the whole universe. Both these bodies are associated with a worldly soul from beginningless time. Each and every jiva possesses at least these two kinds of bodies. At the time of transmigration, only these two bodies are possessed by the souls. The mundane soul can possess four kinds of bodies at the most at a time.'l The following scheme will clearly indicate the point : At least two bodies: Taijasa and kārmaņa. Three bodies: Taijasa, kārmana, and audārika
or Taijasa, kārmana, and vaikriya. Four bodies : Taijasa, kārmana, audārika, and vaikriva
or Taijasa, kārmaņa, audāri ka, and āhāraka. From the above scheme, it is evident that no soul possesses five bodies at any one time. Of course, alternatively, it can possess all the bodies at different times. It is also obvious that one soul cannot have both the āhāraka and vaikriya bodies at the same time, while taijasa and kārmana are always present so long as the soul is in bondage. MANIFESTATION OF MATTER
Some effects of matter in the forms of body, mind, etc., have been mentioned. There remain still some important effects as the manifestations of matter. We propose to describe them here. They are in the forms of sound, union, fineness, grossness, figure, divisibility, darkness, shade, heat, and light. SOUND
Some Indian systems of thought like the Vaišeşika, etc. associate sound with ether. Jainism does not accept this view and explains the creation of sound as due to the violent contact of one material object with another. A single molecule in an isolated form cannot produce sound. It is on account of this
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Tattvartha-sútra, II, 38, II, 41-4
