________________
Q. You have given us detailed information about tejoleshya and tejolabdhi. But it is only one kind of leshya. Will you also kindly shed some light on the semantic journey which one must undertake to understand this word in its totality?
Ans. A detailed description of the aura which comes into being on the basis of feeling is available in the system of Jain sadhana. Feeling is called psychical leshya and the aura is called material leshya. It may be called etheric body. A lot of discussion about it is found here and there in spiritual literature, but the elaborate treatment of it by Jain masters is unsurpassable. The doctrine of leshya has a great significance in Jain philosophy. In the bondage of karma and the release therefrom, leshya plays an important role. The kind of vibrations produced by karma sharir, determines the nature of the feelings originating from it. The nature of feelings determines the radiation of the tejas-atoms. And the quality of radiation creates its own kind of environment. And the nature of the environment in turn determines our current of feeling and this current is called leshya.
Q. It is said that the leshya at the moment of death
determines the nature of the environment in which a man is reborn after transmigration. Is it correct? What are the factors behind auspicious or inauspicious leshya? What achievement, if any, is possible through leshya?
Ans. It is true that one is born in the same leshya in which one surrenders one's body at death. A strong basis for the above conclusion is the Agam saying:
The way thou diest, the same way thou art born!
201
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
