14 Marganas : 5. Ved Margana

                Ved Margana represents the gender of the Jiva. In a specifc birth Jiva has the body  of one of the three possible genders which manifests due to fruition of naam karma of angopang and nirmaan . The three genders are Male, Female and Neutral. The body is generated out of the fruition of Angopang naam karma which provides for their various distinguishing features and Nirmaan Naam karma shapes it accordingly. This results in creation of Dravya Male/Female/Neutral which is the physical body. Further there is manifestation  of Bhava or desires which occurs on fruition of Cahritra Mohaniya Karma of one of the three types. The desire to mate with female is provided by fruition of Purush Veda ( Male gender), desire to mate with male is on account of fruition of Stree Veda ( Female gender) and the desire to mate with either of them is generated by Napunsak Veda( Neutral gender), which are known as Bhava Veda.

                In general the Bhava veda( Desire)  and Dravya veda ( Physical body) are matching i.e one has a male body and desires for female. However in humans and animals this is not essential. In some cases the body and the desire may not match , for example one may have male body and the bhava veda may be stree veda i.e. desire a male. This is possible and accepted in Jainism. In fact such person may still acquire samyak darshan and can attain Moksha in the same birth although he cannot be a Tirthankara.

                In heaven , the jivas taking birth do not have this anomaly and have the Dravya veda in accordance with Bhava Veda. Further there is no birth as Neutral gender in heaven and all are either male or female gender. However female take birth only in Sowdharma &Ishan Swarga and below in the three lower bhavans known as Asurkumar, Vyantar and Jyotishi. The numbers of females is quite high. In fact it is 32 times that of the male population in the entire heaven. Higher level devas travel to lower level Swarga to identify their mates and take them to higher levels. Thus even though not born in higher level heavens the females are distributed in quite a few of higher level heavens.

                As mentioned before in humans and Tiryanch , all the three genders are possible and the bhava and dravya veda need not be same. This is generally the case for all Karma Bhoomi. However there is a Bhoga bhoomi wherein the humans and tiryanch take birth and have a long life of innumerable years upto 3 palyopam and necessarily go to heaven after death. In this Bhogabhoomi the bhava and dravya veda are matching just as in heavens and only male and female genders take birth. In Tiryanch all Jivas in one to four sense are necessarily Neutral gender. The male and female gender starts only with five sensed jivas which includes Asangyi ( without mind) and Sangyi( with mind).

                In humans and Tiryanch, birth takes place in two ways. One is mammals (garbhaj) and other is sammoorchhan i.e. direct without mother and father. All sammoorchhan jivas are Neutral gender. In humans they are aparyapta ( incomplete) only. However in Tiryanch they are paryapta also. All one to four sensed tiryanch are sammoorchhan only which can both be paryapta and aparyapta. 

                In hell all Naraki are as a rule only Neutral gender by bhava as well as dravya.

Gunasthanas in Genders : It is important to note that whenever veda is mentioned, it implies bhava veda ( not dravya veda) unless otherwise specified.

               In Narak all jivas are Neutral gender and can reach upto 4^th gunasthana by having right belief even in 7^th level of hell. After Narak the samyak drishti jiva necessarily takes birth as human while mithyadrishti may take birth in tiryanch or humans. One cannot go to heaven from hell. All samyak drishti who take birth as humans are necessarily male by dravya veda also. Further Naraki takes birth only as Sangyi hence he takes birth as five sensed human or tiryanch.

                In Tiryanch no one takes birth with samyak darshan but one can attain samyak darshan after taking birth. In exceptional case the humans  who have attained Kshayik samyak darshan( from which they cannot drop to Mithya darshan) after bondage of tiryanch ayu , then they take birth as Kshayik  samyak drishti in bhoga bhoomi as tiryanch. In tiryanch all three bhava vedas are possible with five sensed jivas and one can reach upto 5^th gunasthana. After death the samyak drishti would necessarily take birth as deva gati as male. 1-4 sensed tiryanch are neutral gender and are all mithyadrsihti. In asangyi 5 sensed jivas all the three genders are possible but they are Mithya drishti only.

                  In humans all gunasthanas 1-9 are possible for all the  three vedas. However in 9^th gunasthana, the veda karma gets subsided or destroyed  so their there is no further fruition of that karma. Such a Jiva is known as Apagat vedi i.e. beyond gender. It means all gunasthana above 9^th upto 14^th are apagat vedi. Even siddha bhagwan is apagat vedi since he is beyond gender. In 9^th gunasthana the purity of thought is so high that all desires pertaining to gender are subsided/destroyed such that he is Apagat Vedi. It may be noted that the Jiva is still called Manushyani if he is born with female bhava veda. Therefore when  it is said that Manushayini can reach upto 14^th Gunasthana , it implies one born with female bhava veda who has already become apagat vedi in 9^th gunasthana. All samyak drishti Jivas after death take birth as deva except those who have bonded manushya ayu before hand. If they are Kshyayik samyak drishti then they shall take birth as humans in bhoga bhoomi like tiryanch. Or otherwise they necessarily lose samyak darshan before death and die in Mithyatva to take birth as humans again.

                    In Devas only two vedas are existing female and male. The male are born in all levels of heaven while female can be born upto Sowdharma and Ishan Swarga and below. In Devas upto 4^th Gunasthana only is possible for either of the genders. Those with samyak darshan would necessarily take birth as humans with purush veda in Manushya loka. It may also be noted that in the three lower Swarga of the Bhavan Trik kind i.e. Asurkumar, Vyantar and Jyotishi , humans or tiryanch do not take birth if they are samyak drishti. In these three heavens , one does not take birth as samyak drishti but can attain it after wards.

                       An interesting question is posed and answered in Dhavla. It is asked how does a one sensed Jiva  desire for either of the genders when he does not even know them. It is answered by saying that just as a male who has not seen a female all his life develops the desire for same in his adulthood due to fruition of Veda karma, in the same manner it happens for one sensed Jivas. The fruition of karma causes the desire irrespective of knowledge.