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PURUSHARTHA-SIDDHYUPAYA
From the practical point of view, however, Jivas confined in material bodies have varying degrees of consciousness. It is least apparent in the five lowest forms of life where it functions through the one sense of touch only, and has a physical body in the form of earth, water, fire, air and vegetation. This consciousness gradually developes and the Jiva begins to function through an increasing number of sense organs, and is placed in two-sensed, three-sensed, four-sensed, and five-sensed groups.
परिणममाणो नित्यं ज्ञानविवरनादिसन्तत्या। परिणामानां स्वेषां स भवति कर्ता च भोक्ता च ॥१०॥
10. Undergoing, through illusory knowlege, constant changes since eternity, it causes and experiences its own thought activities.
Commentary.
There was no time when Pure Jiva was first polluted by the attachment of karmic matter. Pure Jiya is above all contamination, and is called Mukta Jiva, the liberated soul. It is omniscient and with infinite power.
The Samsari Jiva, or the embodied soul, has ever been contaminated, beweighted, and pressed down by Karmic forces, the good and evil emotions, and thereby, from time eternal, it has been subject to varying thought-activities. These thought activities, though influenced by karmas, have their origin in vibrations, produced by the embodied Jiva : and, therefore, the Embodied Jiva must be held to be the doer of all karmas, responsible for all thought activities, and the enjoyer of the effects thereof, whether good or evil.
The Jaina Philosophy postulates the eternal existence of Jiva; without a beginning and without an end. Jiva is called Purusha, Atma, Ego, I, Soul. Jiva means one who lives, has a conscious existence. It is distinguishable from Ajiva, non-Jiya, which is the other of the two primary substances, Jiva and Ajiva, which constitute the Universe all that is.
There is an infinite number of Jivas in the Universe. Infinity is such a number that it is unaffected by all arithmetical processes. You may add to or subtract from infinity, any quantity, and the result is ever constant-infinity.
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