ESSENCE OF JAINISM
By Manubhai Doshi
Chapter 8: NAV TATTVA : Jiva and Ajiva
It was stated in chapter 3 that Jiva(living), Ajiva(matter), Punya, Paap, Asrava,
Bandha, Samvar, Nirjara and Moksha are the nine fundamentals or Nav Tattva that
every one should know. Some description of Jiva has been given in the last
chapter while dealing with Shaddra ya. It would however be clear from the
discussion so
far that the knowledge of these fundamentals or of anything else is meant for
knowing the Self. This Self is variously known as Jiva, Atma, Paramatma,
Chaitanya, Brahma, consciousness, etc, Thus soul being the focal point and
ultimate objective of all knowledge, it would be useful to discuss it here at
some length.
A question may arise, :What is this soul after all? No one has ever seen it.
Therefore the atheists, who refuse to believe in anything that cannot be
perceived or grasped by senses, deny the existence of soul. Most of the
scientists contribute to this view. They think that the body is a biochemical
composition arising from a peculiar
combination of productive genes of the parents. As long as the composition is
active, it is said to be living organism; and when the activity comes to an end,
it is conside red to be dead. But science does not clarify what exactly makes it
active and why does the activity come to an end. This is not the place to enter
into pros
and cons of the genetic theory. It is however, a fact that when a person dies,
his heart, kidneys and other limbs may still be active but that body is unable
to use them and therefore they cease to function. If however they are removed
from that body in time, they can be transplanted in other body and they happen
to function effectively in the new body. Does it not mean that there was some
sort of invisible energy that was activating different limbs of the body, while
it was alive? That energy happens to disappear at the time of death and the
presence or loss of that energy makes the difference between life and death.
Spiritual science calls that energy as soul.
There are infinite number of souls and every living body has a soul. It is
invisible and has no form or shape. It cannot therefore be experienced by the
senses. It is an element on its own and cannot be produced by any sort of
combination or composition. As such it is stable and can never be decomposed. It
is eternal and lasts for
ever. From time to time, worldly soul has been abiding in different organisms
through which it manifests itself. It leaves the body of one organism when it is
rendered useless and assumes other body suitable for its manifestation. This
type of transmigration and new embodiment birth after birth, has been going on
since the time without beginning. Even though a particular body happens to be
its temporary residence, soul tends to take it as its permanent abode and gets
happy or unhappy depending upon the type of that body and its environments.
Forgetful of its true nature, it aspires to get maximum happiness within the
framework of given embodiment and surrounding situations. Whe n one body becomes
useless for fulfilling its purpose, it gains a new one in tune with its
yearnings and degree of attachment during its earlier embodiment. This
attachment results from delusion of soul about its true nature. Attachment gives
rise to the disposition of craving for the desirables and of aversion for the
undesirables. These craving and aversion are the causes of the bondage of Karmas
that have been described in earlier chapters.
Every living being longs to be happy. The deluded sense of being one with the
body however causes soul to feel happy or unhappy depending upon the conditions
obtained as consequence of its previous Karmas.Our ancient Seers have dwelt deep
in search of tr ue happiness. They tried to explore the Self by raising the
question Koham, which means Who am I. The appropriate answer that they could
obtain was Soham which means that I am that(soul). They could also perceive that
the I or the true Self is th e source of true happiness and abode of
perfect bliss. They realized that the lifeless matter does not have the property
to make any one happy or unhappy and that happiness is the inherent property of
soul.
We however do not experience the lasting happiness, because we do not realize
the true properties of soul. After thoroughly exploring the nature of soul, the
Seers have concluded that the principal property of soul that distinguishes it
from lifeless matter, is know ability or capability of being aware. None of the
five lifeless substances that we have described in the last chapter possesses
that property. This property can enable soul to observe and know anything and
everything. Scriptures have described this as Upayoga Lakshano Jivo.It means
that knowability is the characteristic of soul. That attribute is inseparable
from consciousness and therefore forms its basic property. As such, soul should
simply stay aware of any given situation without any way reacting to it, because
none of the situations really belongs to it. This would generate the sense of
detachment; and absence of attachment to any extraneous influence can enable
soul to abide forever in bliss which is beyond description. No wonder that the
Seers, while describing the properties of soul, have preferred to call the same
as indescribable.
To sum up, soul is pure consciousness. Infinite awareness and eternal bliss are
its principal properties. Sanskrit words for eternity, consciousness and bliss
are respectively Sat, Chit and Ananda. Therefore perfected soul is variously
known as Sacchidana nda, Chidanand or Sahajanand. Negatively speaking, it is
intangible, invisible, colorless, odorless, tasteless, formless and shapeless.
It is therefore described in the scriptures by Neti, Neti (Not this, not that).
It is beyond the reach of senses and mind. It can however be experienced by
dwelling deep within oneself.
Vaidic and other schools of thought consider soul as immutable. Jainism
disagrees. It believes in changing states of soul which are known as its
Paryayas. On the basis of two major Paryayas souls are categorized as worldly
souls and liberated ones. Depend ing upon the sense organs that they possess,
five categories of worldly souls have been described in the last chapter. Of
these, Akendriyas are further classified in five sub-categories. They are known
as Prithwikaya or earthly bodies, Apkaya or aquatic bodies, Teukaya or fire
bodies, Vaukaya or gaseous bodies and Vanaspatikaya or plant life. These five
sub-categories are collectively known as Sthavar meaning immobile. Remaining
embodied souls are known as Trasa meaning mobile, because those that can move in
face of danger are treated as Trasa and others as Sthavar. Sometimes, those five
categories of Sthavar
together with Trasa category are mentioned as six major categories and are known
as Chhakaya Jiva.
Description of Ajiva and of its five categories has been given in the last
chapter. Jiva and these five Ajivas are not any way dependent on one another.
Each of these six substances has potentialities to undergo changes in its own
states. Other substances however play the role of being instrumental in
effecting those changes. For instance, Dharmastikaya, Adharmastikaya, Akash and
Kaal play the role of being instrumental in locationwise and timewise changes.
Worldly soul does not try to identify itself with these foursubstances. It
therefore hardly has any misunderstanding or delusion in such respect and views
the role of those four Ajivas more or less dispassionately. Role of Pudgal on
Jiva and of Jiva on Pudgal has however been the source of lot of misun
derstanding. Worldly soul does not realize that its embodiment and all its
surroundings have resulted from its past Karmas. It tends to identify itself
with all those situations ignoring the fact that they are ephemeral. This has
been the root cause of it s continuing bondage of Karma and resulting
transmigration. The discussion of Nav Tattvas has been undertaken for analysing
the state of worldly soul and the factors that inhibit and those that help in
attaining liberation. Therefore Pudgal and particularly Karma Pudgal, would be
attracting our major attention in the subsequent chapters.