Jiva

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MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA M.M.NINAN Jaina conception of the Universe Representation of Universe in Jain cosmology in form of a Lokapurusa or cosmic man. Jain scriptures reject God as the creator of universe. Jainism offers an elaborate cosmology, including Heavenly beings/Devas. These Heavenly beings are not viewed as creators, they are subject to suffering and change like all other living beings, and must eventually die. If godliness is defined as the state of having freed one's soul from karmas and the attainment of enlightenment/Nirvana and a God as one who exists in such a state, then those who have achieved such a state can be termed Gods/Tirthankara. Thus, Mahavira was God/Tirthankara. According to Jains, this loka or universe is an entity, always existing in varying forms with no beginning or end. Jain texts describe the shape of the universe as similar to a man standing with legs apart and arms resting on his waist. Thus, the universe is narrow at top, widens above the middle, narrows towards the middle, and once again becomes broad at the bottom. 58
MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA M.M.NINAN Jainism appears to teach a dualistic cosmology. The cosmos is divided in loka and aloka – world and not-world, or universe and not-universe. Within loka is every form of existence. Outside loka is only space (alokākāśa), but soul (= life-consciousness), matter, time, movement and opposition to movement do not exist there. Within loka, the universe or manifested cosmos comprising all existing things, there is a lower or hellish world, a middle world (Madhyaloka) and an upper world where the heavenly or celestial beings live. The lower world consists of seven “earths” (bhūmi), which are depicted as a column of horizontal discs with spaces in between, and which become more and more unpleasant in a downward direction. Within these seven “earths” are seven narakas or infernal realms, which are further subdivided into a total of 8,400,000 hellish locations. The Middle World is pictured as a horizontal disc without thickness. On a small part of it we live at this moment. Literature, paintings and relief sculptures depict mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, islands and continents in detail. Above the higher world is an upper world, which consists of dozens of heavens or paradises. Above the highest heaven, but of course still within loka, the universe, is Siddhaloka – the world of the beings who have entirely shed all karmas and will never return to any lower level of existence within the universe. Though Jainism expresses its view on the cosmos in a dualistic way, the deeper and original meaning needs not be dualistic: loka is surrounded by – or exists within – aloka. Thus loka is that aspect of the infinite which can possibly be understood. Even the Jinas 59
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Prof. Madathilparampil Mammen Ninan
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Jiva

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