Treatise on Jainism

Author(s): Jayantibhai S Sanghvi
Publisher: S J Sanghvi

Page 60

A Treatise on Jainism
The first thing we notice in one, who was living but is dead now, is that his senses do not act. He cannot touch, taste, smell, see or hear. He has no vitality of the senses. Also he is powerless. He cannot act, speak or think. He has no force, no vitality of body, speech or mind. But many of these things may be absent also in a living man who is asleep, in a trance or otherwise unconscious. Therefore all over the world we examine the man's respiration. If it is there, we say, he still lives. If not, we say, "he has breathed his last.” This respiration is a sure sign of life. To sum up the distinction between the living and non-living substances we may say that a non-living substance does not have (1) The vitality of the five senses, (2) The power of body, speech and mind, (3) Respiration, and (4) Age. These four may be called the four (or with their sub-divisions ten) vitalities of living beings. But it is noticeable that all these four or ten are also a manifestation of one underlying real fact, viz. that of consciousness. In a dead body the sense-organs are there and the eye may be impressed with colour and form as before,