Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

Page 98

SOUL
65 to the surroundings. Clay, stones, etc., as they come fresh from the earth have life. Water, besides being the home of many living beings, is itself an assemblage of minute animate creatures. Air, fire, and even lightning have life. Strictly speaking, the physical substance of clay, water, stone, etc., is a multitude of bodies of living beings. Dry clay, dry stone, boiled water are pure matter and have no life. Vegetables, trees, fruits have life. When dried or cooked there is no life in them. Worms, insects, fish, birds, animals, human beings are all living beings. There are living beings on stars and planets and even beyond the starry region. 'Life' is only an abstraction. It is not something concrete, superadded to the constituent elements of living beings. It is a generalization, derived from our observation of varying modes of behaviour of such living beings. The stage of actual development of one living being being different from that of another, living beings are classified in many ways in the Jaina philosophy. The simplest ciassification is based on the number of organs of sense they have developed.
We divide organic beings into five classes; those that have one sense, and those that have two, three, four and five senses.
Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable activities. In any particular being, these activities determine the stage of its evolution. It has its biological or vital activities -- those of drawing the necessary nutritive elements, assimilating them, also of growth and decay and feeling in a way the influences of the forces of nature. Under certain circumstances and relationships, certain influences act upon it in an uncongenial way, and still, in course of time, it develops a wonderful adaptability. Five Gate-Ways of Knowledge
I will now say a few words about Jaina Psychology. There are five Gateways of Knowledge, all unfolding through the laws of evolution and Karma. The first is the senses. In the lowest form of life, there is only one sense--that of touch. In RELI-5