The Jain Universe

Neil Pravin Shah
Professor Michael Strauss
FRS 131 The Search for Life in the Universe
5 November 1997

Abstract

This Paper seeks to find the Jain answer to the search for life in the
universe.  Do Jains believe in life outside of Earth?  And, what
impact will this search have on the Jain religion?  Using the four
basic axioms, which Jains base all their thought, this paper finds the
answers to these and many other interesting questions.

Every culture in recorded history has pondered its role on this Earth.
A variety of reasons causes each culture to determine what its story
will be.  One group of people in response to the bitter realities of
life wrote a story without a God and made up an entire science to
support their concept of the universe.  These people are the Jains
from India.  Their religion is dated usually from the birth of the
last prophet or Thirthankar, Lord Mahavira in 559 BC (Mardia 1).  The
Jains embrace their surroundings and show absolute respect for all
living beings.  Lord Mahavira said, One who neglects or disregards the
existence of earth, air, fire, water, and vegetation disregards his
own existence which is entwined with them.  Thus, Jainism is one of
the few religions to believe that there exists a direct relationship
between biology and religion (Tobias 7).  Currently, there are ten
million Jains in the world with eight million living in India.  The
religion has no supreme leader like the Pope in Catholicism who acts
as the spiritual authority.  Jains believe that each soul can attain
an understanding and perception of the world of the same level, but
the path to attaining that knowledge is different for each soul
(Mardia 4).  So the Jains do not believe any person can force another
to become more spiritually inclined.  As a result, the Jains have an
equality among all Jains including the men and women.
	Jains have four axioms that they steadfastly believe.  These
four axioms form their concept of the universe and the world around
them.  The axioms are the following:
1.  The soul exists in contamination with karmic matter and it longs to be purified.
2.  Living beings differ due to the varying density and types of karmic matter.
3.  The karmic bondage leads the soul through the states of existences.
4.  Karmic fusion is due to perverted views, nonrestraint, carelessness, passions   
and activities.  (Mardia 7). 
These axioms are the backbone of Jain thought.
	As a result of these axioms, Jains have broken down the
universe into six elements.  These elements are consistently found in
Jain literature.  They are the following: soul, time, matter, dynamic
medium, stationary medium, and space.
  Jains believe in a cycle of rebirth and death that continues until a
soul is liberated from a body.  Salvation to Jains is equated with
liberation of the soul from the cycle.  The soul is the part of all
living beings which cannot die and is weightless.  Souls are infinite
in number and infinite in longevity.  The soul to Jains is the
equalizer.  Since Jains believe that all living beings have souls,
they believe that no harm should be done to any living creatures.  A
rebirth can include birth as a being in hell, as an animal, as a deity
or as a human in increasing order of desirability.  The fates are
described by a mirror image of a swastika in which each fate is a
quadrant.  Even though an animal has done more unfaithful Jain acts in
a previous life, a Jain does not believe in doing harm to the animal
because that harm will cause the Jain to become an animal.  Thus, the
fate of the soul is based on how faithful a being is to Jain beliefs.
Each time Jains do an unfaithful act their souls gain karmic matter.
This belief in karmic matter gain is the result of axiom one.  Also,
axiom two shows that the only difference between an animal and human
is karmic matter.  Jains break down everything they proclaim to a
scientific level.  They do not believe in a judgement day because
there is no one to judge.  Instead, Jains believe that for a soul to
be liberated from the cycle of rebirth and death it must not have any
karmic matter.  Jains say that every misdeed causes karmic fusion,
which is the attaching of karmic matter to their souls.  The more
karmic matter one has, the more one is bound to this earth.  A being's
soul cannot liberate itself when this karmic matter is holding it
down, which is explained by axiom three.  All karmic matter is the
result of having bodies and living.  So Jains have a pessimistic view
of life.  Settar writes that Jains view a body as an abode of misery
and a ruined house in hell (4).  Another similar view that Tobias
offers is that, the physical body and its complex of desires and
neuroses attach themselves to the soul, weaken it, obscure its nascent
purity --until the soul is virtually snuffed out --with no one to hear
it, and no hope of ever making beautiful music (13).  As a result of
all beings having souls, there is no hierarchy of life for Jains.
They believe that man has no dominion over the animals.  As stated,
Jains are strict vegetarians who try to cause the least amount of
damage to other beings.  Beings, to Jains, however are different due
to their karmic nature.  This differentiation is based upon the level
of spirituality a being has. The more spiritual a being is the more
valued is that being.  How can one determine what is more spiritual?
Jains value knowledge and perception foremost.  Indeed, a being which
has attained perfection has infinite wisdom and perception.  Jains in
their continuing search for perfection want to have the understanding
of the Thirthankars before them.  A Thirthankar is described to have
certain characteristics which would seem humanly impossible to have.
Indeed, these characteristics are superhuman, but they are the result
of basically losing the human body and having the soul's music heard.
One example of such a characteristic, is the ability to live without
food (Jaini 129).  Twenty-four Thirthankars have already appeared on
this planet.  At death they achieved moksa or liberation of their soul
from the cycle of rebirth and death.  To Jains a being in Hell has no
understanding and perception of the world.  A being in the animal
state can have a limited amount of understanding based on the number
of senses that being has.  As a human a being has the most number of
senses, and is thus able to attain the highest level of spirituality.
Only a human can attain perfection because humans have the most number
of senses and the highest ability to think.  The reason a deity cannot
achieve perfection is that a deity sins too much with all the
pleasures that are available to a deity.  Time is an important concept
in the Jain universe.  Time is eternal.  There is infinite time.  As a
result, Jains believe that the universe was and always will be.  To
Jains there is no origin of the universe. If a creator did exist to
Jains then this creator would not have made such an imperfect world;
there would be no misery or famine on Earth.  Jains have replaced the
notion of god, with `the own nature of things' (Tobias 15).
Everything in the world has its own way to be and one of the goals of
a Jain is to learn the nature of everything.  The Mahapuranu, a Jain
text, writes that, Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself
is; without beginning and end, and is based on the principles [axioms]
(Mardia 16).  The existence of the universe implies the existence of
the six elements that compose it.  Thus, souls must have been present
eternally.  So Jains do not believe in the origin of life either.
Jains believe in a plurality of worlds, which each have their own time
cycles.  In a time cycle there are two divisions.  One is the
avasarpini and the other is the utsarpini, each divided into six ages.
In the first division there is increasing misery, and in the second
there is increasing happiness (Jaini 15).  The planet Earth is
currently in the second most miserable age of the avasarpini.  A key
concept to understanding the Jain universe and Jain beliefs about life
on other planets, is that only during four of the twelve ages can
there exist a Thirthankar or prophet on a particular planet.  Jains
also believe that one Thirthankar exists somewhere in the universe at
all times (Mardia 49). So from that one statement it is expected in
the Jain belief system that life exists on planets other than Earth.
The next element in the Jain universe is matter.  Matter includes the
karmic matter that we have already discussed which holds the soul
down.  In addition, matter has an inherent quality to move down (Talib
19), while the soul has an inherent tendency to move up.  Jains have
also included what current physicists have defined as energy in the
Jain definition of matter.  Dynamic and stationary media are often
defined together.  They are both invisible, but their effects are
visible.  Dynamic medium or Dharma causes movement, yet the medium
cannot move itself.  It allows one to walk from one space to another,
while stationary medium or Adharma allows one to rest.  In the cycle
of rebirth and death stationary and dynamic media are significant.
Dynamic medium, at the instant of death, allows a soul to find another
body, while the stationary medium allows the soul to bond with that
body.  Jains describe space as two elements.  One element is the loka
which is the occupied, physical universe, which contains the five
other elements.  The other element is the aloka which is an oblivion.
The Jain universe has been conceptualized as a man for loka.  The
aloka is conceptualized as the area around the man.  Jains continually
seek to link the macro and microcosmic, as they use the image of a man
to portray something as vast as a universe.  The dimensions of the
Jain universe are given in Rajjus, which are immense distances.  One
Rajju is the equivalent of the distance a deity can travel in six
months.  The distance is immensely large, but it is finite.  According
to Jaini, a deity can travel in the range of 10 million miles per
second (119).  One Rajju in kilometers can be defined as the
following:

In light-years 1 Rajju is approximately 1.11 light years.  The volume
of the loka is 343 cubic Rajjus.  The height of the cosmic man is
fourteen Rajjus.  The width at the broadest part of the body, the
legs, is seven Rajjus.  At the waist, the body is one Rajju, and then
the universe grows again to five Rajjus.  At the head the width is one
Rajju (Jaini 120-121).  Current scientific estimates of the universe
are at 15 billion light years (FRS 131), so the Jain position of 14
Rajjus is incorrect by a factor of one-billion.  Or one can say that
the current estimate based on astronomers lack of understanding is
incorrect by 100,000,000,000%.  These differences can be reconciled
because Jains view that some of the universe is unoccupied.  So in
their estimate of the physical universe or loka they do not include
the space between objects, which can be represented by the aloka.  The
Jains view the aloka as infinite in size, and current science also
says that the universe is expanding in size.  Thus, the two estimates
of the size of the universe can be reconciled once one considers the
aloka.  A recurring motif in Indian thought is the concept that the
feet are impure and the head the most pure.  Such a motif is reflected
in the Hindu caste system.  The highest caste, the Brahmans are the
most spiritual of all the Hindus and they are viewed to be of the
head.  While, the least spiritual of peoples in the Hindu beliefs are
the untouchables, and they are represented as the feet.  Although, the
Jains do not believe in a caste system, the idea of spirituality and
the Human motif seems to be a similar theme in both religions.  The
Jains see that the worst fate for a soul is in hell, so they have hell
at the feet of the universe.  In total there are seven levels of Hell.
The seven from the top down are the following: gem, sugar, sand, mire,
smoke, black, and very dark (Jaini 121).  It can be concluded that the
levels closer to the feet are worse than the levels above them.  The
first two are not even painful physically.  Gem and sugar are Hells
where one can have many pleasures, but one sins immensely.  The black
and very dark levels closest to the feet are so painful that human
souls are not strong enough to sin enough to belong there in their
next lives.  The seven Hells occupy the greatest volume of the
universe occupying all the space from the feet or base to the waist
(Jaini 122).  At the waist lies an infinite number of concentric rings
on planes.  The planes are described to be 100,400 yojanas high (Jaini
122).  One yojana is equivalent roughly to ten miles (Lishk 29).  Each
circle on each plane is either a world or an ocean with each
alternating. At the waist is where all human existence lies on this
plane.  The multiple worlds in the Jain universe all lie on this
plane.  This plane is called the madhya-lok (Jaini 122) or the middle
universe.  It can be considered the center of the universe.  Jains
view humans there because Jains believe that they are nothing special.
Above the Jains live those who have liberated themselves, while below
them live the ones who have committed such heinous sins.  A human is
really in a transitional state either going up or down based on his
actions at the madhya-lok.  The next level from the waist to right
below the top of the head is called the Kalpa and Kalpatita.  The
Kalpa is composed of sixteen heavens.  In the Kalpatita lie other
regions for deities to live (Jaini 124).  At the very apex of the
universe is the siddha-sila region where all the souls which have
attained moksa or liberation lie.  These souls will lie in this region
forever.  They will not have to endure life ever again.  The pains and
agonies of life will never be known to them as they live in a blissful
state with infinite knowledge for eternity.  The Jain physical
universe has been explained in terms of all that present science and
ancient Jain thought holds, yet one can also ponder how Jainism can be
applied to discoveries not yet made.  One such discovery is finding
life on another planet.  The knowledge presented until now, forms a
base from which one can form inferences on the Jain view of the
existence of life on other planets.  Many religions simply cannot
grasp the notion of life existing elsewhere than on Earth.  Most
religions hold humans in a very special place which only allows for
them to be unique and not a natural by-product of evolution or the
nature of things.  Looking at the basic knowledge of Jainism presented
to this point one can see that Jainism expects for life to exist on
other planets.  First, the time periods allow for a Thirthankar to
exist on any one planet only during four of the twelve ages.  Also,
Jains believe that a Thirthankar must exist somewhere in the universe
at all times.  As a result of the two stipulations, a life form with
the ability to achieve moksa must be present on a planet other than
earth.  A Thirthankar by definition is one who has achieved perfection
and his soul will attain liberation at the time of death, thus ending
the cycle of reincarnation.  So one notes that Jains expect life to
exist on other planets.  Is this life intelligent?  The life form will
have to be intelligent enough to attain moksa, and in order to do that
the life form must be born with five senses.  Thus, Jains believe that
five-sensed organisms which have the ability to choose between right
and wrong exist elsewhere than on Earth.  These beings will closely
resemble human beings, the only difference will be their degree of
spirituality attained.  Since Jains are expecting life to be found on
another planet the religion will be able to exist beyond the discovery
of life elsewhere.  Jains already do believe that they are nothing
special.  In addition, to the prospect of finding life on another
planet, Jain thought can be stretched to mean that human life is not
necessary on Earth until the next age when Tirthankars can appear.  A
current scientific view that is widely accepted is the Darwinian
theory of survival of the fittest and the evolution of life.  The
current understanding is that at one time there were only
microorganisms and these organisms evolved and mutated randomly
causing new organisms to be formed.  Within each species there existed
different mutations and according to the environmental conditions at
any one period of time different mutations caused different organisms
to survive.  As organisms evolved they became more complex and able to
perceive more of the world with more senses.  The Darwinian theory
stipulates that it takes a couple billion years for humans to develop
from the simplest microorganisms.  Also, current estimates on the age
of the universe are in multiples of that time period.  Jainism and
Darwinism do not have to disagree if one looks again at the time
cycles of Jainism.  The time cycles state that a Thirthankar will
exist on a particular planet during four of the twelve ages.  This
means that humans do not necessarily have to exist during the entire
time of the existence of a planet.  Just because time is eternal in
Jain thought does not mean that humans on any one planet are eternal.
Humans can just as easily perish like the dinosaurs did on one planet
and exist peacefully for many years on another planet.  Thus, because
there are cycles in the Jain time concept, on any one planet there may
exist the highest level of evolution, and then afterwards the whole
cycle of evolution may begin again.  The universe according to current
scientific thought would allow enough time for that to happen on other
planets.  Indeed, life on planets such as Mars might have existed
earlier according to the evidence scientists are now gathering.  Life
in these planets may have existed on their surfaces and now have
receded to the inner parts of the planets.  Thus, the cyclical nature
of the Jain time scale allows for evolution and Darwinism; the two
modes of thought can exist without conflict.  One should also note the
cycle of reincarnation lends itself to the idea of evolution.  As a
soul is attached to bodies which commit more and more good deeds that
soul will eventually find itself in human form and from there
liberation.  Thus, the apex of evolution for Jains is moksa.  Jainism,
an ancient religion of India which has been relatively static in its
views is a religion which embraces science.  Its four simple
foundations are powerful enough to form the guiding principles of all
one's daily actions and thoughts.  One may ponder the Jain view of
life in the universe and the four axioms present an answer.  One may
ponder the Jain view of evolution and the four axioms present an
answer.  The answer to the first question is that Jains expect for
there to be intelligent life, on another planet that is intelligent as
Earth's life.  The answer to the second question is that Darwinism can
be reconciled as long as the view that the universe is infinite is
kept in mind.  The four basics truths of Jainism formulate answers to
questions that one could pose in the past, can pose now, and will pose
in the future.


Bibliography
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Settar, S.  Pursuing Death.  Karnatak University: Dharwad, India, 1990. 
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