________________
20
THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS OF JAINISM
3.3 DIVISION ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF SENSES/INTELLIGENCE OF THE LIFE AXIS
The lowest forms of life are the micro-organisms which possess only one sense, that of touch. These are infinitesimal and can only exist as part of a larger body (living or non-living) and therefore they should have very few life-units, say 10-4 life-units.
The next stage of life is another group of one-sensed microorganisms which take the subtlest possible unit of matter as their bodies and these are earth-bodies, water-bodies, air-bodies and firebodies. We will denote earth, water, air or fire bodies in Fig. 3.1 by life-unit of 5X10-4. Next are plants which are rated higher than the preceding, having gross individual bodies, and we will rate them at 10-3 life-units. It is interesting to note that one can distinguish
Muvi www
Spiritually higher
(see Figure 3.2)
Humans
*
Average man
10
*
Criminals
five-sensed
5 4x10!
* .*
four-sensed
Animals
3x101
three-sensed
2x101
two-sensed
102 103
one-sensed (concentrated) one-sensed
Roots Plants Minerals/Water/Air/Fire
subtle micro-organisms Micro-organisms
5x10
10
Insentient objects
0
Fig. 3.1
The life-axis giving the degree of the soul's purity for different beings. (Not to linear scale).
