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HIERARCHY OF LIFE (AXIOM 2)
Axiom 2: “Living beings differ due to the varying density and types
of karmic matter"
3.1 THE AXIOM
HOW DOES THE karmic matter divide different living species? If we accept Axiom 2, then it says that the differing density of the karmic matter is one of the main reasons for the differences between living species, i.e. the purer the basic elements of the soul, the higher is the form of life. We will define fully types of karmic matter (heavy, light) in the next chapter but these are the components into which karmic matter gets differentiated.
3.2 LIFE-UNITS AND LIFE-AXIS
The degree of soul-purity can be quantified in a relative way. We may define for convenience a unit of soul-purity as being that degree of purity of the soul which leads to 100 life-units in the average human being. This figure of 100 might be compared to the intelligence quotient for our ease of understanding. Thus at one extreme, the pure soul will have an infinity of life-units whereas an insentient object will have zero life units. Thus we can represent the soul's purity or the life units of the living beings along a line taking value from zero to infinity: we will call this the life-axis. Note that as the degree of soul-purity varies from zero to infinity the density of the karmic matter will vary from infinity to zero, inversely as it were.
The two main components of the soul's purity can be regarded as the number of senses related to energy bliss elements, and the level of intelligence related to knowledge/perception elements described in Ch.2. Bearing these in mind, we will further divide the life-axis in the next section. These divisions have always existed qualitatively in Jain Science, but we can now quantify them.
