Lesson - 21
Living Beings Based On Six Different Bodies
[Kanta and Rama are two sisters sitting and talking on the terrace of their house.]
Kanta: Which is the place that you stand upon in this world?
Rama: The Earth.
Kanta: Do you know what are the different things on the earth?
Rama: Yes, yes, very well. The earth contains soil, stone, gold, silver, iron, copper, coal and various other things which the labourers dig out from the mine.
Kanta: Rama! You might have read about these?
Rama: Sister! I haven’t read.
Kanta: Look, whatever comes out of the mines are all possessed with life. All these are the bodies of living beings, they are called ‘earth-bodies beings’.
Cutting down the conversation, Rama went downstairs to have meals, while Kanta kept sitting on the roof. Some time later Rama called her and said.
Rama: Kanta! What are you seeing? The night is about to set in, when shall you have your meals?
Kanta: Forget the food at present. What would happen if night sets in? Going without food does not matter much. Look! What a beautiful scene it is; dark clouds are creating atmosphere of thunder and lightening, tiny drops of water are falling from the sky. Come here and observe the night.
[Rama comes up on the roof.]
Rama: Oh! It’s wonderful!
Kanta: Do you know that rain water is possessed of life.
Rama: No, I never knew it. Does water too possess life?
Kanta: Yes, well-water, fog-water, and rain-water possesses life. It is called water-bodied being.
Rama: Is fire burning from gas also possessed of life?
Kanta: Yes, It also has life, not only that, all types of fire have life. Have you ever heard the name of fire- bodied being?
Rama: Yes, I have. But I didn’t know that fire is called fire bodied being. Well, sister, tell me one more thing. Does the cool wind blowing at present possess life?
Kanta: Yes, yes, these are called the air-bodied beings.
Rama: Kanta! Look we see so much greenery will you please enlighten me about it?
Kanta: Why not? Do you see that all these creepers and trees spring forth, grow, get nourishment, sometimes get sick, become old and die? Science acknowledges that they possess life.
Rama: Alright, I shall now keep in mind that green vegetables, corn etc. are called vegetable-bodied beings.
Kanta: I would like to tell you one more thing. Earth, water, fire, air and vegetables, all these five types of beings are called sthavara (immobile bodied beings). They cannot move from one place to another on their own. They are endowed with the sense-organ of touch alone.
Rama: Beings like ants, wasps, bees, elephants, humans are all mobile living beings. But I do not know which body they belong to?
Kanta: All these are trasa-kaya (mobile beings).
Rama: What do you mean by trasakaya?
Kanta: Beings which can move here and there at will for happiness or for getting rid of troubles, beings that can contract, get frightened and produce sound, are called trasa-kaya. All the living beings with two, three, four or five senses are called trasa(mobile beings)
Questions:
- Give the names of living beings based on six different kinds of bodies?
- What do you mean by earth-bodied beings?
- Which kind of living beings have water as their body?
- Which kind of beings come under trasakaya?
- Explain the meaning of trasakaya.
