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JAINISM subterranean chambers of hell or the worlds of mineral and plant existence, whereas when the hue brightens the monad is relieved somewhat of weight and mounts to one or another of the more elevated spheres, ascending perhaps to the human kingdom-which is situated on the surface of the earth, the iniddle plane of the numerously stratified universe-or even to the higher, supernal abodes of the godly beings. When, however, the supreme state of isolation (kaivalya) has been attained and the monad has been purged absolutely, relieved of every ounce of karmic ballast, then it lifts itself with unresisted buoyancy beyond all the strata of the six colors to the zenith, like a bubble of air, destitute of weight. There it abides above the cycling flow of the currents of life that agitate, one way or another, all the realms below. It has left permanently behind the active theater of the continually changing masks.
The metaphor of the bubble is one that is used frequently in the Jaina texts. The life-monad rises, passing through the celestial regions of the gods where radiant beings still burdened by the weight of virtuous karma enjoy the fruits of former lives of benignant thought and action. Self-luminous, transparent, the balloon ascends to the dome of the world-that highest sphere, called "slightly inclined” (işat-prägbhāra), which is whiter than milk and pearls, more resplendent than gold and crystal, and has the shape of a divine umbrella. Another metaphor compares the life-monad to a gourd that has been made into a flask or bottle; its marrow has been removed and its surface covered with layers of clay to render it the more solid. Such an empty vessel if placed in the water will sink to the bottom because of the weight of the clay; but as the covering slowly dissolves, the gourd regains its natural lightness, and since it is filled with air it becomes lighter than the water, rising automatically from the bottom to the surface of the pond. With just such an automatic movement, the life-monad, once rid of karmic substance, rises from the depths of its imprisonment–this submarine world of
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |