Jain Metaphysics and Science: 5.1 Vargana

Acharya Malayagiri has defined vargana as a group of similar things of the same kind. Acharya Mahaprajna says that a pudgala aggregate made up of similar paramanus is a vargana. According to Acharya Kanaknandhi a vargana is a cluster of paramanus, which are in unbound state. It will be seen later that all these definitions appear to be true under different conditions.

There are infinite numbers and types of varganas according to Bhagwati Sutra but the following eight types are important from the point of view of their association with soul.

1. Audarik (Gross Body) Vargana - These varganas are of gross type and are suitable for making bodies of immobile and mobile organisms.
2. Vaikriya (Protean Body) Vargana - These varganas constitute the protean (Vaikriya) body that can exist in various forms like small or huge, light or heavy, visible or invisible, etc. Such bodies are possessed by celestial and infernal beings.
3. Aharka (Migratory Body) Vargana - These varganas constitute a special kind of migratory body using yogic powers.
4. Tejas (Fiery Body) Vargana - The fiery or energy (tejas) body of an organism is made from tejas varganas which are supposed to have electrical quality.
5. Karman (Karma Body) Vargana - These varganas constitute the karma in the karma body of organism.
6. Swasochhavas (Respiration) Vargana - These varganas are source of bioenergy to organisms.
7. Bhasha (Sound) Vargana - These varganas are supposed to produce and transmit the sound and speech in organisms and inanimate objects.
8. Mano (Mind) Vargana - These varganas support the thought process in the mind.

All these varganas are subtle and exist all over loka. Change of one type of vargana into another type is possible. Unless organized into a meaningful form by soul, these varganas remain in their natural state. It is only when soul organizes and uses them; they discharge meaningful functions as described above.

The audarik, vaikriya, aharaka and tejas varganas are supposed to exist as gross aggregates having attributes of eight- touch (including light, heavy, soft and hard touch). The karman, bhasha and mano varganas possess four touch attributes only (cold, hot, positive and negative), and exist in subtle form. The swasochhavas varganas exist both as four-touch (subtle) and eight touch (gross) varganas.

Gommatsara Jivakanda provides another type of classification of varganas. According to it there are 23 types of main varganas found all over loka. These varganas are classified on the basis of number of paramanus present in the cluster. In the order of increasing number of paramanu in the cluster the varganas are classified as follows.

1. Anu (smallest) Vargana - consisting of a single paramanu.
2. Sankhyatanu (Countable Anu) Vargana - Comprising of countable number of paramanus in the cluster. Obviously, there is a range of number of paramanus in this type of vargana starting from two to maximum countable number.
3. Asankhyatanu (Innumerable) Vargana - Contains innumerable paramanus in the cluster. Here again the range of number of paramanus in the cluster is large.
4. Anantanu (Infinite Anu) Vargana - This type of vargana has infinite number of paramanus in the cluster and there is a range. The lowest number in the range is one more than the highest number in the lower asankhyatanu vargana and the highest number is more than the lowest in the range by a number equal to some multiple of the Infinitely Small Fraction of The total Number of Liberated Souls (ISFTNLS) All the four types of varganas are non associable by soul and are not useful in that sense.
5. Ahara Vargana - Ahara Vargana constitutes the gross, protean (vaikriya) and migratory (aharaka) bodies of organisms. There is a range of number of paramanus in this vargana also. The lower limit in the range is one paramanu more than the highest number in the last vargana and the upper limit is more than the lower limit by a factor equal to ISFTNLS.
6. Non-Associable (Agrahya) Vargana. The range of paramanu in this vargana starts with one more than the higher limit in the last vargana. The upper limit exceeds the lower limit by a factor equal to ISFTNLS.
7. Fiery (Tejas) Vargana. The range of this vargana starts after the upper limit of the last vargana. The upper limit exceeds the lower limit by a factor equal to ISFTNLS.
8. Non-Associable Vargana (Second). The range of this vargana starts after the upper limit of last vargana. The upper limit exceeds the lower limit by a factor equal to the multiple of the lower limit and the factor ISFTNLS.
9. Sound (Bhasha) Vargana. The range starts after the upper limit of the last vargana. The upper limit exceeds the lower limit by a factor equal to ISFTNLS.

The sound vargana is suitable for producing all kinds of sound including the sound produced by inanimate objects like musical instruments and natural phenomena like thundering of clouds and sound produced by living organisms including speech by humans. An organism attracts sound varganas before producing sound. These varganas may remain with the organism for a period of one samaya to innumerable samayas, being the period of sound production. The sound varganas may have one or more colour, smell and taste and two or four touch. We know that a paramanu has one colour, one smell, one taste and two- touch. The vargana cluster may contain paramanus of various kinds having different colour, smell, taste and touch and so the cluster has more than one colour, smell and taste and four touch viz cold, hot, positive and negative. It may be noted that like sound vargana, all other kinds of varganas have more than one colour, smell and taste and four- touch. An organism attracts varganas from all six possible directions. These varganas may flow in for a certain period and intermittently for more periods. The flow period can be of minimum two samaya and maximum innumerable samaya. The organism discharges these varganas intermittently and not continuously, that is the discharge pattern is similar to the inflow pattern.

There are two kinds of speakers, powerful and weak. The varganas discharged by a powerful speaker are broken down to smaller groups and ultimately to paramanus, which travel to the end of loka. These paramanus also activate other paramanus, which travel in different directions, and thus the sound vargana is spread out in the entire loka. The varganas discharged by a weak speaker remain in unbroken state and travel a finite distance equal to that occupied by innumerable varganas. The varganas then break down and each group travels another finite distance before losing its power. Thus the sound vargana discharged by a week speaker does not travel to the end of loka.

10. Non-Associable Vargana (Third). A cluster having one paramanu more than the upper limit of the last vargana provides the lower limit of this vargana. The upper limit is infinite times greater than the lower limit.
11. Mano (Mind) Vargana. The lower range of this vargana is one paramanu more than the upper limit of last vargana. The upper range exceeds the lower range by a factor equal to ISFTNLS. Mano vargana constitutes the physical mind (dravya munah) of organisms.
12. Non-Associable Vargana (Fourth). The lower range of this vargana is one paramanu more than the upper limit of last vargana. The upper range is infinite times greater than the lower range.
13. Karmana Vargana. The range of this vargana starts after the upper limit of last vargana. The higher range exceeds the lower range by a factor equal to ISFTNLS. Organisms for constituting their karma bodies use this vargana.
14. Permanent/Regular (Dhruva) Vargana. The range of this vargana starts after the upper limit of last vargana. The higher range is infinite times greater than the lower range.    All the above fourteen varganas are regular in the sense that clusters are formed for every number in the range.    All subsequent varganas may be regular or irregular, that is, the clusters are formed for some numbers of paramanus and may or may not form for other numbers in the range.
15. Intermittent regular (Santar -Nirantar) Vargana. The range of this vargana starts after the upper limit of the last vargana. The upper range is infinite times greater than the lower range. The vargana clusters are formed for small range intermittently dispersed between the non-forming ranges over the full range. This vargana is also non associable with soul. 
16. Permanent Nil (Sunya) Vargana (PNV). This vargana starts with one paramanu more than the upper range of last vargana. The upper range is infinite times greater than the lower range. The meaning of adjective nil is not clear. One possibility is that the paramanus in this vargana rapidly assemble and dissemble so that the vargana is always in a transient state. At any given instant the vargana of any number in the range is not stable.  The other possibility is that the aggregates formed by this vargana are not detectable. The later possibility has an important significance in physics.
17. Individual Body (Pratyek Sarira) Vargana (IBV) The range for this vargana starts with one paramanu more than the upper limit of the last vargana. The upper limit is some multiple of the lower limit.

In the living world one soul may have one body or many souls may share a common body. The former is called pratyek or individual body soul and the later is called common body soul as described in chapter 4. The body of an individual body soul consists of individual body vargana. The earth body, water body, fire body, air body, celestial, and infernal beings, the aharaka body and the bodies of monks in 13th and 14th stages of spiritual development are supposed to be individual bodies because in these cases the body does not contain any micro and nano organism. In some cases the individual bodies of many organisms of the same kind may cluster together, but this does not form a common body. In a common body many organisms share the same body.

18. Permanent Nil (Sunya) Vargana (Second PNV). The range of this vargana starts after the range of last vargana. The upper limit in the range is some multiple of the lower limit. This vargana is similar to last PNV.
19. Large (Badar) Nigod Vargana (LNV). The range of this vargana starts after the range of last vargana. The upper limit is innumerable times more than the lower limit. This vargana forms the karman and gross body of large nigod/nano organisms. Carrot, radish, spurgewort, green ginger, creepers, etc. are examples of LNV. Each one of them has innumerable micro bodies and one micro body contains infinite number of nano organisms.
20. Permanent - Nil Vargana (Third PNV). The higher limit of this vargana is innumerable times its lower limit.
21. Small (Suksma) Nigod Vargana (SNV). This vargana starts with one paramanu more than the higher limit of the last vargana. The LNV has limited occurrence but SNV is found all over in water, land and sky. This vargana constituents the gross as well as the luminous and karma bodies of small nano organisms.
22. Permanent Nil Vargana (Fourth PNV). This is the next vargana in order. The upper limit in the range is innumerable times the lower limit.
23. Gross Matter (Maha Skandha) Vargana (GMV). This is the last vargana. All gross matter, visible or invisible, in the loka is made of GMV.

It is seen from above that each kind of vargana has specific use and application. The paramanus in a vargana have some kind of affinity and perhaps because of this a vargana having larger number of paramanus occupies proportionately less space than a vargana of less number of paramanus. That is, the paramanu density increases as we go from lower to higher vargana. This property of vargana has important significance as described later in this Chapter. A comparison of approximate range of varganas is shown in fig. 5.1. Note the small range of associable varganas used by the soul.