Dr. N.L. Kachhara
In the previous chapters we discussed the soul, dravya karma, and bhava karma. Dravya karma is comprised of karman vargana, which is supposed to be subtle matter in the form of an energy field; it may exist as some kind of plasma-like form in the body[1]. Bhava karma is impurity of the soul, which is some mode of the soul itself that determines its state in worldly existence. There are two ways to describe the soul, as given in Chapter 1: the absolute way, or nischayanaya, and the empirical way, or vyavaharanaya. In the absolute way, in any empirical soul the pure soul is distinguished from the impurity, bhava karma, as shown in Figure 1. It is then supposed that during any soul transformation all changes take place in the impurity, the bhava karma, and the pure soul is unaffected. When all of the karmas are eliminated, the pure soul without impurity is said to be liberated; the cause of its empirical existence is now absent.
In its empirical existence the soul possesses three bodies: the karma body, the tejas body, and the gross material body. The non-physical soul extends throughout the space of the physical body and is the causal part of the system in the sense that it is because of the soul that other bodies exist. Being non-physical the soul has no physical contact with the other bodies, but it is still linked to all of the bodies so that together they constitute a system. The linkages between the various components of the system are shown in Figure 1. The bhava karma of the soul and the karma body (dravya karma) are linked by the principle of parallelism. The karma body is linked to the gross body through radiations known as adhyavasaya and lesya. In this system of three basic units, i.e. empirical soul, karma body (and tejas body), and gross body, because of interactions and interrelations, a change in any one unit affects the other units and therefore the whole system.
Figure 1 Empirical Soul: S -Soul (pure), BK Bhava karma, DK Dravya karma, T Tejas body, GB Gross body
The soul and the matter of the gross and karma bodies possess individual properties which are important parameters for their change, but they are also affected by changes in other units of the system. Therefore, in order to study the performance of any one unit it is necessary to know the changes taking place in and the performance of the other units. They are interdependent and cannot be studied in isolation. Their interrelations and interactions are important, without which the study is incomplete. This is the reason that biological studies of organisms need to assume the existence of intelligence in order to explain phenomena and processes taking place in the body. To understand the performance of the gross body it is necessary to know about the soul and the karma processes. Similarly, to know about the transformations in the soul it is necessary to understand the biological processes and the actions of karma.
Whereas Jainism emphasizes the link between the empirical soul and karma and only sparsely refers to processes in the gross body, scientific studies of the system lack the capability to deal with the non-physical soul directly. It is possible to deal scientifically with the sub-system consisting of the karma body and the gross body, as both are physical in nature although science has not yet discovered laws for the subtle matter of the karma body, which at present cannot be described by the known laws of science.
The concept of soul faculty helps to establish a link between the empirical soul and karma, and via karma to the gross body. This enables us to integrate the system in a holistic way and study the system's performance during any transition. This concept can be expanded further to detail the interactions between the components of the system and scientifically understand the role of each component in the system's overall performance. This study is restricted to human souls with empirical and articulate knowledge and indirect perception.
