Samayasara

Author(s): Kundkundacharya, Jethalal S Zaveri
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 24

Introduction/Premble to Chapters I & II of consciousness. There are infinite number of Jīvas, each numerically different from another. They are classified into two fundamental categories:
Samayasāra
I. Samsāri Jīva - State of worldly existence (mundane). In this state, the soul is embodied and experiences sensuous pleasures and pain. It is subject to metempsychosis or cycles of re-births. In this state there is constant interaction between Jīva and Pudgala.
II. Mukta Jīva – State of emancipated existence. This is pure and perfect state of Jiva in which the soul is disembodied and is also free from the cycles of re-births. There is no interaction between Jīva and Pudgala, whatsoever in this state. Both categories are real.
The fundamental basis of Jain philosophy is the belief that the pure and perfect or emancipated state is integral to all souls. Jains (and many other Indian systems) have always been conscious of the innate potentiality of achieving perfection and the possibility of the realization of eternal, disembodied and pure self-perfection.
3. Physical Order of Existence-Pudgala
Amongst the five inanimate substances that comprise the environment, the most important one is the physical substancePudgala-which is identified with matter in modern scientific terms. The characteristic attributes of matter are: touch, taste, smell, colour and sound, thus making it perceptible to sense-organs. ‘Jīva' on the contrary, is totally devoid of these and cannot, therefore, be apprehended by sense-perception. The physical bodies are constituted by atoms--paramāņus. This atomic structure of the physical reality is comparable to the concepts of modern science. Though sub-atomic physics has revolutionized the concept of atom which is no more basic and elementary, it does maintain its individuality. It cannot be denied that atom is the empirical foundation of the structure of the physical existence. Parmanu is the ultimate atom or the ultimate indivisible point of matter. All physical objects being aggregates of atoms, undergo changes entirely due to atomic disintegration or aggregation.
4. The Worldly Life-The Body and the Soul
Every living organism or a Samsāri Jīva is an organic unity of two different entities-Jīva and Pudgala or the soul and the body. Though this dualistic separation is, empirically unverifiable, it is a
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