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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
be similar to those found in the lower animals. It has been now definitely established that sponges are animals in which the power of sensation is developed in but the faintest degree. Yet there is so little difference between the vital operation in the sponge and that in a plant that the former was long taken to be a plant. The mimosa closes its leaves and lets down its stalk on touch or on being shaken. This shows that the power of sensation in the mimosa is keener and its transmission of a stimulus is more rapid than that in the sponge. As soon as its prey touches it the dionæa imprisons the fly by immediately pressing its leaves together. This also indicates that in some of the plants, the sensation is acuter and reflex actions more energetic and instantaneous than in sponges and polyps. Purely mechanical laws clearly fail to explain the healthy manner of climbing as done by trees and creepers. If such shapeless, stationary and apparently insensitive organisms as sponges and polyps are to be classed as animals, there seems to be no reason why plants are to be considered as outside the class. Indeed, Fechner, Leitzeb and many others are strong advocates for a ‘plant' soul.
Souls, IN ELEMENT-BODIED BEINGS, THE JAINA THEORY
Lastly, let us take up the first Soul-species of the Jaina's. Are there fire-bodied, earth-bodied, air-bodied and waterbodied Souls? The Jaina's as we have seen, affirmed their existence. Their theory, it should be carefully noted, does not refer to those microscopically small tiny animals as may be found, say, in a glass of water. Their theory suggests that there are animals clothed in elemental matters. It should be remembered in this connection that according to the Jaina's, the whole of the cosmic space is filled with Matter and Souls. Put in another way, the Jaina theory implies that every irreducible minimum of space contains both Soul and Matter. Some have taken this Jaina contention to be a form of animism. But this is a mistake. The Jaina's do not say that matter itself is living. They are thus not animists.
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