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The Vibrancy of Pudgala: Thinking about...: 81 creatio ex nihilo akin to Christian cosmology. Furthermore, due to the fact that something always existed, it is posited that the universe is "eternal, everlasting, without a beginning and without an end."10
Veer Sagar Jain and Shugan C. Jain note that in order "to know [the] cosmos, it is essential that [one] understand[s] properly the concept and nature of substance (dravya). Without knowing the nature of substance, [one] cannot understand the characteristics of any entity properly/ correctly." ." What Veer Sagar Jain and Shugan Jain mean here is that for Jains, the universe is broadly classified into two broad categories, of which six constituent elements or dravyas, are derived. The first major division is between jiva and ajiva, soul or living beings and non-living beings, respectively. From these broad categories, Jains further classified the elements of ajiva, specifically: matter (pudgala), principle of motion (dharma), principle of rest(adharma). space (ākāśa) and time (kala). These five classifications, including the sixth of jiva, are the six substances that compose the entirety of the universe.
While this paper is uniquely oriented toward pudgala or matter, it is perhaps useful to explain each of these substances in brief. In contrast to each other dharma and adharma enable the capacity of entities to move or rest. They are, as Jyoti Jain explains, "neutral and conditional causes... non-corporeal but homogenous-whole in their constitution. They are simply passive, inactive agents or media for the other substances to move or step, as the case may be."13 Ākāśa is the substance of space in the literal sense, it is physical space in which entities and the other substances participate. Veer Jain and Shugan Jain explain that it is omnipresent and singular; however, it is divided into the lokākāśa and alokākāśa, inhabitable and non-habitable space, respectively." Kala is the substance that assists other substances undergo change and it is atomistically composed." Notably, Jyoti Jain explains that the practical units of time "are mere deductions of the real substance that kala is.
Jiva and pudgala are the two substances that are of critical importance to this paper. As mentioned, jiva is understood as soul, but also as living being. Jyoti Jain explains, "The jiva (atman, soul, spirit or the psychic principle) is the very antithesis of matter and cannot be perceived by the senses. It is essentially constituted of sentiency (cetana) and its differentia is the manifestation of consciousness (upayoga) which takes the form of darśana (intuition or indeterminate perception) and jñäna (cognition or definitive knowledge) and flows at a time in any one of the three channels: inauspicious, auspicious and pure, indicating impiety, piety and purity. respectively."""
The jiva is significant, insomuch as the jiva is the vitalism of Jainism. It is that substance which provides animation, sentience and awareness. There are two types of jiva. The first type is the transcendent jiva or liberated jīva (mukta), which is the soul that is pure spirit/pure consciousness. It is the achievement of this state that Jain philosophy and religion aim toward. In contrast to the liberated jiva, there is also the embodied jiva or samsärin, which is connected to the material and matter. This embodied jīva is further classified based on sensory organs and mobility. Those that are immobile include elemental-bodies (fire, water, air, earth) and
