Scientific Secrets of Jainism

Author(s): Nandighoshvijay
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

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Scientific Secrets of Jainism
their celestial abodes, beds of celestial beings are spread. They are covered with bed-sheets. When a god takes birth in a bed, his whole body, with garments, ornaments, garlands etc. becomes ready in 48 minutes as if by a magician's magic. Then the god turns and twists the body to shake off idleness and gets up. This is how gods are born. For hellish beings, there are recesses in the walls. Hellish beings take their birth and make their bodies in the recesses of a wall. They get only body and no garments, ornaments, garlands etc.(For this see : The Tattvārtha Sūtra ch.2, Sūtra-31).
This is how living beings are reproduced and born. The reproduction and birth of living beings of asexual reproduction are identical i.e. same and one thing. In sexual reproduction, souls of the living beings first come in wombs and in the due course of time they take birth. They are of three kinds : (1) jarāyuja ( born with wrapper called placenta, (2) andaja (born through eggs) and (3) põtaja (born without placenta). Living beings born with placenta containing blood are called jarāyuja. The man, the cow, the buffalo, the goat etc. are jarāyuja. Living beings born without placenta on their body are called pötaja e.g. the elephant, the hare i.e. rabbit, the mongoose, the rat etc. The snake, the pigeon, the parrot, the hen, the sparrow etc. lay eggs. After incubation for a certain period, a babe comes out of it. This is called andaja garbhaja janma (sexual birth through eggs).
Before we proceed to talk about asexual reproduction let us talk about their birth places. In Jain terminology, they are called Yönis. There are innumerable birth places (Yönis) of living organisms or beings. But based on same colour, smell, taste and touch, there are 84 hundred thousand types of birth places (Yonis). There may be innumerable birth places with similar colour etc. and these all are included in one type of Yoni. The number of types of birth-places for earth-bodied beings is seven hundred thousand typ Similarly, water-bodied beings are also born in the birth places of seven hundred thousand types. Fire-bodied living beings are also born in the birthplces of seven hundred thousad types. Wind-bodied living beings are also born in birth places of seven hundred thousand types. Praty ēka Vanaspatikāya(i.e. plants having a single soul in a single body ) are born in birth places of ten hundred thousand types. Pratyēka Vanaspatikāya means plants etc. that have different souls in the root, the seed, the leaf, the flower, the fruit, the stem and the skin and the whole tree also has one soul. Sādhāraņa Vanaspatikāya are plants with a single body containing infinite