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CHAPTER FIVE
185
is mūrta or tangible. That explains why it possesses the same magnitude as is possessed by the body which might belong to it at this occasion or that.
When the substances dharmāstikāya etc. are amūrta just like the substance jīva then why is it that there is a change of magnitude in the case of the latter but not in that of the former ? This question is answered by pointing out that all this is due to nothing else but nature. For it is the very nature of the substance jīva that when suitable conditions are available to it, it undergoes contraction and expansion just like a lamp. Thus the light of a lamp placed in the open sky possesses a certain magnitude but when it is placed inside a chamber its light assumes exactly the same magnitude as is that of this chamber; again, when it is placed down below a through it illumines the region lying down below this through and when it is placed down below a jug its light assumes exactly the same inagnitude as that of this jug. In this manner the substance jīva is liable to contraction and expansion just like a lamp. Hence it is that its magnitude becomes greater or lesser according as it assumes a greater or lesser body.
Here arises the following question : If a jīva assumes a small magnitude on account of its nature for contraction then why does it not manage to occupy a region smaller than one by asankhyāta part of the loka-ākāśa—that is, why does it not occupy one, two, four or five pradeśas of loka-ākāśa? Similarly, if a jīva possesses a nature for expansion then why does it not cover also
aloka-ākāśa just as it covers the entire loka-ākāśa ? The answer is that the extent of contraction undergone by a jīva depends on the extent of the concerned karmic body while it is impossible for a karmic body to be smaller than one by asankhyāta part of a finger; hence the contraction of a jīva remains limited to this very magnitude. As for the expansion undergone by a soul its limit is defined by the loka-ākāśa. For this two reasons are adduced. The first is that a jīva possesses just as many pradeśas as does the loka-ākāśa; and since even in the state
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