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Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c20: Chapter XV: Jīvājīvābhigama

Some Jaina Canonical Sūtras c20

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Chapter XV: Jīvājīvābhigama

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The Jīvājīvābhigama is the third upāṅga which consists of twenty sections. It deals with the fundamentals of Jainism and is wanting in philosophical speculation. It contains the doctrine of the living and non-living things. It mainly points out the various classifications of jīva¹ and ajīva.¹ The former comprises all entities endowed with life, while the latter includes those which are devoid of life. It is in the form of questions and answers like the fourth upāṅga called the Pannavaṇā. It gives a description of the universe in all its details and supplies a comprehensive classification of the living beings. The section dealing with the continents and oceans is an interpolation according to Winternitz.² It is connected with the Jambudīvapannatti which

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¹ These come under Navatattva or the Doctrine of nine terms according to the Jainas (Uttarādhyayana, XXVIII, 14). These two terms comprehend the world of existence as known and experienced. The jīva signifies all that has life and the ajīva signifies the things without life. The world of life is represented by the six classes of living things and beings, the first three of which are immovable and the last three movable. The earth lives, water-lives and plants are immovable beings, while the movable beings are the fire-lives, wind-lives and those with an organic body. The living things are either subtle or gross, and the living beings belong to saṃsāra or those whose souls are perfected. Through the gradation of living things and beings one can trace the evolution of the senses, the lowest form of beings being provided with only one sense, the sense of touch (Cf Sūtralṛtāṅga, I, 7 1, Uttarādhyayana, XXXVI). The study of the category of jīva is important because it is connected or interconnected with the six classes of beings that the process of karma sets in and the nature of man's conduct is determined. The things without life are either formed or formless. The formed are compound things and atoms constituting the world of matter. The world of the formless is represented by the first four of the astikāyas (dharma, adharma, space and time). Dharma and adharma explain motion and absence of motion respectively. Space explains how things and beings appear mutually distinct and time explains their duration of existence. Thus the category of ajīva helps us in completing our study of the world of life and of existence. It is interesting to compare the notions of jīva and ajīva as found in the text of the Jīvājīvābhigama with those given in other Jain texts (vide B C Law, Mahāvīra His Life and Teachings, pp 90ff).

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² History of Indian Literature, II, 456

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In Buddhism jīva and ajīva convey the same meaning as in Jainism. In the Mahāli Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya (I, p 157—tam jīvam tam sarīram udāhu aññam jīvam aññam sarīram. Cf Majjhima, I, 157, Anguttara, II, 41) the Buddha raises the question whether jīva and sarīra are the same but he does not answer the question. He simply leads the discourse up to arhatship along the series of mental states set out in the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (Dīgha, I). Jivitindriya mentioned in the Pāli texts (Cf Vinaya, III, 73, Samyutta V, 204, Milinda, 56) is the faculty of life. In the Milinda-Pañho (Trenckner Ed, p 31) the word jīva occurs. It is used in the sense of living being or soul.

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is a work on Jaina cosmology and geography. This text has been edited in the Seth Devchand Lalbhai Jaina Pustakoddhāra Samiti Series with Malayagiri's commentary (1919).

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The text first of all deals with ajīva which is primarily classified into two heads: rūvi (possessed of form) and arūvi (without any form). The latter is further classified into ten heads and those comprise dharmāstikāya (principle of motion), adharmāstikāya (principle of rest) and the like along with their further subdivisions into deśa and pradeśa. They are called arūvi because they cannot be perceived by the senses. Their validity is to be established on the strength of scriptural evidence. Rūvi ajīva has four varieties, which are as follows: (1) khandhā, (2) khandhadesā, (3) khandhappaesā and (4) paramānu poggala. Of these khandha is said to be the aggregate of atoms which forms a complete molecular constitution. Any physical body which is capable of perception may be taken as a khandha; half of this is khandhadesa, and the half of this half again is called khandhappaesa. The second and the third do not possess full molecular constitution; they are in the formative stage. The fourth variety known as paramānu poggala is the primary atom which cannot be further subdivided. The Vaiśesikas, on the other hand, hold that two atoms make one dvyanuka and three dvyanukas or six atoms make one tryasanenu which comes under the range of perception This is more subtle than the khandha of the Jainas. All the entities which fall under rūvidravya have got colour, odour, taste, touch, and structure as their five different constituents. This is all about inanimate substance.

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The various species and sub-species of jīvas are elaborately enumerated in the text and side by side their characteristic features are also dealt with. They are primarily classified into two groups: (1) mobile (tasa), and (2) immobile (thāvara). The former roughly comprises the four kinds of living beings and these are (1) hellish, (2) animal, (3) human, and (4) celestial. The immobile is of three kinds and it covers all earthly and fluid bodies and the whole of the vegetable kingdom.

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The Sāmkhya system also classifies the entire world of living beings (Kārikā, 53) but its treatment is different from that of the Jain text. All these immobile beings possess only one sense-organ of touch. The animal world beginning with such insects as earthworms and ending in man is brought under four main organisms having two, three, four, and five sense-organs.

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All inanimate objects possessing forms have got the following five attributes: (1) colour, (2) odour, (3) taste, (4) touch and (5) figure. Like other systems of thought, sound is not regarded as a special attribute. Taste has got five varieties and these are bitter, pungent, astringent, acid and sweet. Salt is not separately mentioned. Touch is also minutely classified. It is of eight types and these are hard, soft, heavy, light, hot, cold, rough and smooth. Figures are classified into ellipse, circle, triangle, etc., but no mention of polygon.

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The main interest of the text lies in the classification of the jīvas or animates. They are primarily classified according to the number of sense-organs they possess. Those possessing only one sense-organ, i.e., that of touch, are classified first. Under this head come the following five varieties:

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(1) Earth-lives, such as rocks, salt, arids, various metals in the shape of iron, lead, gold, diamond, pigments, corals, gems, are included in this list. In the Vaiśeṣika system too hair-splitting arguments are raised to establish the fact that gold falls under the category of fire.

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(2) Water lives, such as rain water, hot springs, saline water of the sea, dews and the like.

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(3) Fire-lives, such as lightnings, thunder-bolts, luminaries, meteor, etc.

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(4) Air-lives, such as storms, intermittent winds, high-winds, low-winds, etc. Even the purely material bodies are also held as jīvas according to the Jainas.

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(5) Vegetable and plant lives. An attempt has been made in the gāthās (pp. 36-43) to classify them scientifically and it is interesting to note that various kinds of grass, sugar-canes, and bamboos (p. 40A, gāthā 8) are described together. It should be observed that the twigs, roots, leaves, fruits and flowers of the same tree are said to possess independent lives.

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Then comes the world of animals and insects. These are also classified according to principle of the number of sense-organs. The microscopic organisms are not overlooked. Last of all come those which possess all the five sense-organs, namely, that of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Under this head we find the four classes of jīvas, namely, (1) Hellish beings, (2) Gods, (3) Human beings, and (4) Infra-human beings, such as beasts and birds. All these are classified further in detail. In the list of gods, no mention of pitṛloka is found.

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Different kinds of births also find a prominent place in Jainism. Young ones of some species are born in the wombs, while there are others produced from eggs. But there are some species of minute organisms which are of spontaneous growth (sammucchimā).

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There are some stray references to philosophical discussions. We find some technical terms which are not generally mentioned in other systems of thought. As regards leśyā¹ it is regarded as soul-soiling emotion or tint. It has got six varieties, namely, black, blue, grey, yellow, lotus-hued (some call it red) and white. The first three are connected with bad emotions and consequently they give rise to evil. However, these colours are not to be regarded as the intrinsic colour of the soul.

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¹ Cf. Sūtrakṛtānga, 1 4 21, Uttarādhyayana, XXXIV

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Regarding eight-fold karman, the karma-particles are found amongst the hellish creatures right up to the Vaimānik gods. Owing to inherent association with them, an individual is forced to migrate in the metempsychosis. The eight-fold karman consists of the following:—(1) knowledge-obscuring action, (2) cognition-obscuring, (3) feeling, (4) deluding, (5) length of time, (6) destiny², (7) family determining, and (8) obstructive. These are further subdivided into 148 sub-classes.

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² The sixth karma (nāma) decides which of the four states or conditions shall be our particular gati (destiny)

Cites (13)