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Soul
they are born are 'Pota's' e.g. the new-born elephant; they have no sac or shell over them when they are born. The creatures who are born with such sacs or shells are called Jarayuja's e.g. the human infants. 'Andaja's' are creatures, produced from eggs e.g. the birds.
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JAINA THEORY AND THE SIMPLEST ORGANISMS OF MODERN BIOLOGY
Before dismissing summarily the above Jaina account and classification of psychical beings, as having little or no matter of real biological interest, it would not be wholly unprofitable to examine it more closely. Re-arranging the Jaina classification we find that according to the Jaina's the lowest in the order are beings (viz. the fire-bodied etc.) which are said to have souls in them but which are encased in and scarcely distinguishable from elemental matter. Higher up in the scale are the Sthavara's which are what we call Vegetables. Next up in the scale, are the worms, the flies, the birds, the brutes which we ordinarily call lower (sub-human) animals. And the highest in the order are the human beings (leaving out of account, the superhuman beings). It may at once be stated that this Jaina classification tallies with the modern account of the evolution of life. Let us leave aside for the time being the earth-bodied and such souls. The fact is now scientifically established that it is the unicellular organisms that gave out the first and the crudest indications of life. These earliest protozoa were similar to the protists of today. Each of these was a strictly unicellular being and whatever life or feeling it had, coincided with the molecular processes in its protoplasm. These simplest possible unicellular organisms are comparable to the Pratyeka Sarira Sthävara's of the Jaina's, which are said to have one soul in one body. Higher up in the order, come next the multicellular protozoa. The body of these multicellular protozoa is a conglomeration of heterogeneous (orginally homogeneous) cells, formed into a consistent cluster. In the diatomacca, the panlotomacca, the vol-vocinae and such other plasmodomous
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