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always associated with service in the world, real or ideal. In later Buddhism we have the conception of Trikāya Buddha in which the three bodies of the Buddha, nirmāņa kāya, sambhogakāya and dharmakāya have their respective place and function. The nirmāņakaya of the Buddha seems to correspond in some respects to the Historical Buddha in his physical form. The Sambhogakāya represents a higher state which is associated with the higher plane namely the plane of the Bodhisattvas. If nirmā pakāya represents the world teacher on the worldly plane, Sambhogakāya represents the same world teacher in a higher spiritual level but the Dharmakāya of the Buddha does not represent any such teaching personality. It represents the essence of Buddha the essence in which all Buddhas, historical and ideal are at one. The basic difference between the two systems Buddhism and Jainism seems to be that the central idea of Buddhist spiritual culture is Advaita whereas in Jainism it is not so. The Buddha as the Buddha is essentially one though appearing as many as sambhogakāya to the Bodhisattvas and as nirmāņakaya to ordinary people externally but in Jainism the Siddhas are multiple, though as Paramātmā even there they may be said to be one and the same. Kundakunda and the other great teachers of the school refer to this unique Ātma which is the oneself of all Siddhas from the transcendent point of view.
We may here pause to consider the case of Avatāra in the Hindu Paurāņic culture. In the conception of Avatāra which is also associated with the service of the world (Jiva sevā ) we have as stated in some of the Puranas a case of differentiation from the Divine inspite of running in basic unity, for in the Paurāņic traditions we have the conception that the Divine Atma is niramśa (partless ) and sāṁsa ( with parts ). When the Divine Atmā descends into earth consciousness it does so in one or two forms. In one case the underlying unity in connection remains unbroken inspite of the descent. It is like the descent of oil ( Avicchinna ) 'from a higher level to a lower one. In this case there is a thread of unbroken unity between the source and
