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1923
CARIE
THE FABRIC OF LIFE AS CONCEIVED IN JAINA BIOLOGY
J. C. Sikdar Biology is the science of living substances (ityadravayas) The field of Jalna Biology differentiates the living from the non-living by using the word Jidatthikayat (organism) to refer to any living things, plant or animal, just as modern Blology does. So It is relatively easy to see that a man, a Sala tree', a creepers and an earthworms are living, whereas pieces of matter (pud gala), e g carth, stones, etc, are not go. But according to modern Biology, “it is more difficult to decide whether such things as viruses are alive."
Jaina Biology states that the fabric of life of all plants and animala is paryāptie (Sakti = vital force) or Pranao (life force), in another way, Lc. paryaptı appears to be the actual living material of all plants and animals. There are stated to be six kinds of paryapti10, viz. ahāra paryapti (vital force by which beings take, digest, absorb and transform molecules of food par. ticles into khala (waste products) and rasa (chyle = molecules of nutrients or energy),11 sariraparyapti (vital force by which chyle or molecules of nutrlonts = (rastbhūtamaharam) are utilized by beings for the release of energy, the building of blood, tissue, fat, bone, marrow, semen, etc , indriyaparyapti (vital force by which molecules of nutrients or chyles suitablo for building senses aro taken in and provided to the proper place so that beings can have the perceptual knowledge of the desired sense-objects by the sense-organs),14 ucchvasaparyaptils (vital force by which particles of respiration are taken in, oxidized for energy and left out (as carbon dioxide and water), bhaça paryapti. (vital force by which beings, having taken proper particles of speech, omit them as speech) and manahparyapti? (vital force by which beings, having taken particles (or dusts) of mind transform them as the mental force, i.e. thought).
It appears that this paryapti (vital force) is not a single substance but Varies considerably from organism to organism (1 e, one-sensed to five-genaed being), among the various parts of a single animal or plant, and from one time to anothers within a single organ or part of an animal or plant, Thero are six paryaptis, but they share certain fundamental physical and chomical characteristics 18
It is stated that there are ten kinds of präng80 (living material or life force), viz five indriya pranas (hife force of five senses), ucсhvasa prāņa (life force of rospiration), Zuprāņa (life force of length of life), manovakkayapranas (life forces of mind, speech and hody). Sambodhi 8.1
