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Glory of Jain Culture
It seems Umasvati has involved the five major canonical characteristics of
Jiva' in terms of (1) Physical forms (bodies, birth, growth) (2) Cognitive (cognition, conation, consciousness, mind, instincts etc.) (3) Volitional form (five types of Karma-based or inherent volitions involving passions, colourations etc.) (4) Actional form (Activity and restraint) and (5) Experiencial form (Pleasure, pain, heat, coolness, sensitivity, or consciousness) in his two-fold definition : (a) Volitional or current psychological (b) Capacitative and functional cons
ciousness (Upayoga, Cetana) The commentator, Akalanka, has mentioned a third point in the definition:
On this trend, there could be three types of the definitions of the living beings: (a) Purely physical : vitality (b) Purely non-physical :
Consciousness Mixed definition : Physical-cumnon-physical (vitality and
consciousness).
Umasvati has not mentioned purely physical definitions of the living - though he has completion' as a form of physique - making Karma and 'vitalities' have been mentioned by Akalanka in 2.13 - 14. However, he has mentioned two definitions as above - the other ones fall into either of these two categories. These seem not to involve non-materiality as consciousness is a faculty of brain and mind. This definition is also in tune with the extant primary canons where the terms Jiva' and 'Atma'connote more or less physical synonymity. Thus, the
Jiva' may be defined as an entity which has two characteristics similtaneously(1) Vitality and (2) Consciousness (capacitative and functional. Akalanka has proved the existence of the livingness in the body by (1) I-usage (2) doubt (3) reversal (4) exertion or resolution which apply to Jiva' (worldly living) also as every point is applicable to physical entities.
The biologists have also characterised the living entity on the basis of its manifold attributes shown in Table 3.
An entity with vitality (senseorgans, respiration, life-span,
strength - all physical attributes).
He has described all these definitions in second and other chapters of T.S. However, in the days of spiritualisation, the cognitive differentia became primary, non-alienable or ideal one, others getting secondary positions. But the ideal property cannot be without its substratum and the commentators have, therefore, mentioned dual nature of difference and non-difference between an attribute and attributed, materiality and non-materiality of the living being etc. When one faces logical difficulty on one side, it could be solved from the other side.
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Studies on Biology in Tattvartha Sutra (Formulae on Reals)
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