Ratnakarandaka Shravakachar

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Page 35

Verse 1
eternal and without form (non-material, colourless, arūpī), and without activity (niṣkriya). It is one self-subsisting, indivisible whole; it is without parts and, as such, one single continuum. By negation of form or colour, the accompanying attributes of taste, smell and touch also are denied. Its function is to find room for all things.
Space has infinite space-points and it pervades both the universe (loka) and the non-universe (aloka). Now what is universe? The space wherein the substances such as the medium of motion (dharma) and the medium of rest (adharma) exist is called the universe-space (lokākāśa). The three worlds and the Siddha silă are part of the universe*:
The Lower World: It comprises seven earths (having abodes of infernal beings), one below the other.
The Middle (Transverse) World: It comprises innumerable concentric islands-continents, extending one beyond the other in transverse position up to the ocean of Svayambhūramaṇa. Humans reside in the two and a half continents commencing from Jambudvipa up to the Manuṣottara mountain chain which runs in the middle of Puskaradvīpa, and in the two oceans Lavanoda and Kaloda.
The Upper World: Mount Meru of Jambudvipa is embedded in the earth to a depth of 1000 yojana and is 99,000 yojana high. Below it is the Lower World. That which extends transversely within this range (namely the height of Mount Meru) is the Middle World. Above it is the Upper World. There are sixteen heavens or kalpa, on eight storeys, which are the habitations of devas from Saudharma
*See Jain, S.A. (1960), "Reality - English Translation of Shri Pujyapada's Sarvarthasiddhi", p. 84-106.
† yojana is a unit of length measurement (see page 115).
9