Panoramic View Of Jainism

Author(s): Ratankumar Jain
Publisher: Ratankumar Jain

Page 11

The space, medium of motion, medium of rest, time and the souls (described below) do not possess sensory qualities. Thus they cannot be perceived by senses. They can only be postulated. They make the physical world what it is. (b) Conscious or Living Beings: A living being is a conscious entity. It is the most important aspect of reality. The conscious being (jiva) is also called soul. It knows and feels. It acts and is acted upon. It suffers by its association with matter and is born again and again, only to suffer. There is a plurality of souls in the universe. Each soul is subject to the same laws of karma and rebirth. The highest endeavor of the soul is to free itself from this bondage of karma and attain salvation. Souls are divided into two major groups: Liberated (mukta) souls and worldly (samsari) souls. Worldly souls are in the bondage of karma and are subject to birth, growth, old age and death which are characteristic of this world. The classification of the living beings (worldly souls) is based on the number of sense organs (indriyas) present in the living beings. The lowest of these are the one-sensed (ekendriya) living beings which are immobile (sthavar). They are endowed with only one sense, that of touch (sparsh). Plants and trees belong to this class of living beings. There are also other microscopic single-sensed organisms (sukshmaekendriya jivas) which are subtle and invisible to the naked eye. Thesemicroscopic organisms are found in earth, water, air, etc. The next higher living beings are mobile (trasa). These are:
two-sensed (dwindriya) having the senses of touch and taste three-sensed (trindriya) having the senses of touch, taste and smell four-sensed (chaturindriya) possessing the senses of touch, taste, smell and sight
five-sensed (panchendriya), having the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing All higher animais belong to the class of five-sensed beings. Almost all five-sensed living beings are endowed with a mind (manas), the faculty of thinking. Man is a five-sensed living being with a mind. Besides human beings, according to Jainism, there are heavenly beings (devas) and beings living in hell (narak). The five nonliving entities together with the living beings are aspects of reality in Jainism. 3.4 KARMA THEORY Bhagwan Mahavir visualized that the world is full of misery and sorrows, and therefore, he concluded that the fundamental object of religion should be to help the worldly souls cross the river of sorrows and obtain deliverance from the cycles of births and deaths. The root cause of the soul's worldly career is its own actions which associate it with different types of external material particles (karma). There are the following eight types of karma:
1. The perception-obscuring (darshanavarni) karma 2. The knowledge-obscuring (nanavarni) karma 3. The feeling-producing (vedaniya) karma 4. The deluding (mohaniya) karma 5. The life-span-determining (aayu) karma 6. The physique-determining (naam) karma 7. The status-determining (gorta) karma
8. The obstructing (antaraya) karma All living beings, whether human or sub-human, are subject to the influence of these eight types of karma. According to another classification, karma are of two kinds: