Acharya Mahaprajna
Bhāṣyaṃ (Prelude to the present section)
While describing the six classes of beings, the air-bodied beings are usually mentioned after the fire-bodied ones.[1] Although the air-bodied beings were to be mentioned here in their proper order, the plant world is being given priority here. This priority must be due to some reason. The Cūrṇi [2] has shown that the air-bodied beings are invisible and therefore difficult to believe. In order that the disciple might not have distrust in scripture by not believing in the existence of the air-bodied beings, the proper order is violated. But this view of the Cūrṇi deserves critical consideration.
Air, though invisible, is not difficult to believe. In the present chapter, the main purpose is not to prove the existence of air, but the real intention is to prove that it is animate. On this issue, it can be asserted that the existence of life in earth, water etc. is equally difficult to believe. The plausible reason of the violation of the order is: the four immobile beings are considered together and thereafter the mobile beings are taken up for discussion. Air is included among the mobile beings and therefore air-bodied beings have been explained after discussing the immobile ones.
In the Sthānāṅga [3] and the Tattvārthasūtra,[4] the mobility of fire too is accepted. But fire is not mobile in the same sense as the air that has horizontal motion. This is why fire-bodied beings were mentioned in the series of immobile beings.
