________________
JAINISM
99
These six substances are known as the six astikāyas or terms comprehending and characterising the world of existence. The three terms, dravya, guna and paryāya characterise the six astikayas.
Under navatattva or the doctrine of nine terms come jīva and ajīva.1 The Jivājīväbhigama, which is the third Jaina Upanga, really contains the doctrine of living and non-living things. It mainly points out the various classifications of jāva and ajīva. The former comprises all entities endowed with life, while the latter includes those which are devoid of life. These two terms comprehend the world of existence as known and experienced. The world of life is represented by the six classes of living things and beings. 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. Through the gradation of living beings and things one can trace the evolution of senses, the lowest form of beings being provided with only one sense, namely the sense of touch.?
In Buddhism jīva and ajīva convey the same meaning as in Jainism. In the Mahälisutta of the Dīghanikaya (I. p. 159—tam jivaṁ tam sariram udāhu aññam jīvañ aññaṁ sarīram), Buddha raises the question whether jīva and sarīra are the same, but he does not answer the question. He simply leads the discourse upto saintship along with the series of mental states set out in the Samaññaphalasutta of the Digha, I. Jivītindriya mentioned in the Pali Vinaga, III, 73; Samyutta, V. 204; Milinda, 56, is the faculty of life. Jīva in the sense of living being or soul occurs in the Milindapanha.
Jīva (soul), ajiva (the inanimate things), the binding of the soul by karma, merit (punya), demerit (papa), that which causes the soul to be affected by sins (āśrava), the prevention of sins by watchfulness (samvara), annihilation of karma (karmakşaya) and final deliverance (mokşa) are the nine truths. The nine main terms of Jainism which became widely known as early as the time of the Buddha include nirjara and mokkha.
Purāņānam kammānam tapasă vyantibhāvā, navānaṁ kammānam akaraņā āyatim anavassavo, ayatin anavassavā kammakkhayo kammakkhayā dukkhakkhayo dukkhakkhaya vedanākkhayo vedanākkhaya sabbaṁ dukkham nijjiņņam bhavissatīti.
1. Uttaradhyayana, XXVIII, 14. 2. Cf. Majjhima I, 157; Arguttara II, 41.
Trenckner Ed. p. 31. Majjhima, II, p. 214.
3.
Tre
4. MO
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
