Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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METAPHYSICS: II. KINDS, ETC., OF SOUL
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minerals (as above), with the possession of a soul having consciousness of a very low order.
B. The other class of souls is trasu, or mobile. The distinction is that the sthāvara soul cannot move at its own will, while the trusa to a greater or lesser extent can. The trust souls hare sense-organs, and are classified accordingly into four classes: namely, into (1) those which have two senses, of touch and taste : (2) those which have three senses, i.e. of smell also: (3) those which have four senses, i.e. of sight also ; (1) those which have five senses, i.e. hearing also (2).
Nine qualities of the soul are given (5); but the chief of them is consciousness (or chetani).. Jira is that which lives, whether a worm, an ant, a rose, a nightincale, a horse, or a man. It is capable of seeing and knowing all, and it desires happiness and avoids pain. Of the mundane form of body and soul the soul is the higher, and the only responsible, partner. Or rather the body, except in the drag of its dead inertia, is merely the sleeping partner (3). The powers of the soul are limitless, as we have seen in theology. The whole universe is its scope. Its knowledge and perception cover all; its happiness is not measured by time, because time camot run beyond it; and its power is divine, because it is joined to omniscience. This great principle of Jainism, this little “I”, which is the everagitated centre of our brief lives, is eternal. Matter may capture it, keep it back from its light and freedom and bliss; but matter cannot kill it. Jainism exposes the hollowness of death. The string of life is continuous; the migrations are only knots in it. Or