The Jaina Doctrine of Karma And The Science Of Genetics: Jaina View of Paryāpti and Prāṇa

Jaina paryāpti and prāṇa appear to be the actual living material of all plants and animals like protoplasm in modern biology. Jaina paryāpti and prāṇa, the two unique forces, no explainable in terms of physics and chemistry, are associated with and control life. The concept of these forces may be called vitalism which contains the view that living and non-living systems are basically different and they obey different laws. Many of the phenomena of life that appear to be so mysterious in Jaina biology may be explained by physical and chemical principles. So it is reasonable to suppose that paryāpti and prāṇa the two mysterious aspects of life come near to the idea of protoplasm because of its unique functions in the organism.^[64]