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INTERNAL FORCES OF LIFE
(Jain Philosophy & Modern Science)
O J. S. Zaveri & O Muni Mahendra Kumar
The Jain View on Characteristies of Living Organism
A living organism depends upon an 'organization that regulates all its actions. What exactly, then is 'living' ? In other words, what is the difference between animate' and inanimate'? According to Jain Philosophy, animation (life) is caused by the unity of a nonphysical (or non-material) entity called SOUL or spirit with a material body. That is, there is a subtle spiritual self associated with the gross physical body during the life; death is the separation of the two. Until emancipated, the soul is always enveloped by karman (as karma-śarira). Thus, on death, what is separated from the physical body is soul-cum-karma-sarīra. It is the karman that is responsible for the 'organization' of the physical body. The role of the non-material soul is somewhat akin to a catalyst. An organism "lives' for the duration of the life-span which is determined by one of the eight main categories of karman viz. āyuşya karman. Body and Soul
Birth of an individual organism in a particular species at a particular time and in a particular place is neither arbitrary nor accidental but the very precise result of the individual's karman which again is the result of its actions in the past life or lives. The determination of the species, the life-span, the social status, feeling of pain and pleasure and such other fundamental factors of the individual's 'life' are the combined result of four aghātin main categories, viz., (i) nāma-karman (ii) gotra karman (iii) vedanīya-karman and (iv) äyusya karman and their relevant sub-categories. The Soul
No one has yet been able to synthesize a living cell in the laboratory, although we know now, in some detail, what the various material substances involved are in the making of a cell, because life is not merely a composition of material substances. A non-material soul-substance (jīvāstikāya) is also cssential to create a live cell, Soul is a substance but not a physical one. And this non-material/non
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