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Matter
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Although so far as their ultimate substratum,-Karma is concerned, all the five Bodies are essentially the same, they are functionally different and there is no harm, if the appellation Karmana is reserved for one of them only. The Kārmaṇa Sarira is the subtlest of all Bodies, subtler than even the Taijasa and like the latter, it is a constant companion of the soul in its beginningless migrations, until it is finally emancipated. It is, as it were, the basis or ground upon which the structures of the other Bodies are built. All the Bodies come into existence through the Karmaņa Body. This is what is meant by
'कार्मण शरीर प्रणालिकयां चौदारिकादीनामभिनिष्पत्तिः । कामेणस्य सामर्थ्यं सर्व कर्मावकाशदानम् ।
As already observed in the case of the Taijasa Sarira, other Bodies in their turn, constantly react on the nature of the Kārmaņa Sarira. As a matter of fact, the Jaina's admit a sort of increase and decrease, Upaçaya, and Apaçaya, Aya and Vyaya in the quantity of the Karmaņa Šarīra and point out that like all other Bodies, the Karmaņa also is characterised by continuous Visarana or quantitative change. Like the Taijasa, the Kārmaṇa passes unseen and imperceptibly from one dying gross Body to a new Body and no substance is dense enough to obstruct its course. When a soul attains the final liberation, the Kārmaṇa Body drops down once for all and for all times to come.
The word, Kārmaņa Sarīra, in the sense in which it is used in the Jaina philosophy is not found in the Vedic systems. In the second Brahmana of the third chapter of the Bṛhat-Aranyaka, the question is pointedly raised as to the abode of the soul when its gross vesture dies 'element to element' the answer given is, - "तौह यद्दयतुः कर्महैवतद्दयतु : । अथच यत् प्रशशंसतुः कर्म हैव तत्प्रशशंसतुः । "
It is said that at that time it is in Karma that the soul lives. This of course is the nearest approach, on the part of the Vedic philosophy to the Jaina conception of the Kārmaṇa Sarira. Yet, it should never be forgotten that Karma is not material in character in the Vedic philosophy. Accord
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