Saturday, February 10, 2018

14 Marganas : 14. Ahaar Margana

There are totally five types of bodies a Jiva can have in the worldly state. These are Audarik, Vaikriyik, Aharak, Tejas and Karman. The audarik body is the physical body of  Manushya ( human) and Tiryanch ( animals). The Vaikriyik body is that of Naraki and Devas. Aharak sharir is a special body created by Muni when travelling to Tirthankar for clarification of doubts ( this is not same as  Ahaar Margana ). The tejas sharir is an aura type body always present with Jiva and Karman sharir is the body comprising of karma particles bonded with the jiva at all times. Hence a jiva after death goes with only Tejas and karman sharir to the next abode.

Ahaarak Jiva : Out of these the first three are used by the Jiva for his worldly activities and they are dictated by their respective Naam karmas. Now these bodies require continuous replenishment to maintain since at every moment these bodies are acquiring and shedding Nokarma particles. Nokarma stands for Not Karma i.e. all such particles which are not Karmic. So under the fruition of Audark, Vaikriyik and Aharak sharir naam karma the jiva  acquires the Nokarma Vargana ( particles) which  are used to replenish the sharir ( body), vachan( speech) and mind. This act is called Ahaar and such Jiva is called Ahaarak. Since a jiva is in any of the four gati at any given  moment , therefore at every moment he is acquiring or shedding the nokarma particles of the possible three kinds. However there is one state when he does not acquire or shed such particles in worldly transmigration. This is when he is transiting from previous body to the new body in a state called Vigrah Gati. This period for transiting can be from 0 to 3 samay.

Vigrah Gati :  After death a Jiva travels in straight line path towards the next birth place. These paths are in accordance with the Loka coordinate system and he does not travel diagonally. Therefore he can take maximum of 3 bends to reach the destination for travelling from anywhere to anywhere in Lokakash. Each bend requires one samay hence the period spent in Vigrah gati can be a maximum of 3 samay. In case he does not require any bend then he takes birth in the next birth place immediately after death and no time is spent in vigrah gati. This is known as Riju Gati.

Anahaarak Jiva: Now in case the Jiva has travelled in vigrah gati for 3 samay to take birth , then in this period he does not acquire any Nokarma particles to replenish his body since there is no body. Hence in this period he is called Anahaarak. If he requires only 1 samay then he is Anahaarak for 1 samay period. However if he went with Rijugati then he has not spent any time in vigrah gati and he starts acquiring Nokarma particles form the next moment of birth. Therefore he continued to be Ahaarak without any break. It can happen that a Jiva may take birth from one gati to next without being in vigrah gati for a considerable period of time. In such a case the jiva was ahaarak for that long without break. The maximum period for Jiva to remain Ahaarak without break is equal to innumerable Kalpa kal . One Kalpa kal is period of one cycle of Utsarpini and Avasarpini kal which is equal to 20 kodakodi sagar. Therefore a Jiva may remain Ahaarak without being Anahaark for innumerable kodakodi sagar i.e. he may continue to take births one after another and travel in Riju gati , for that long a period without break. After that period he would definitely take birth being ahaarak which means he would definitely spend at least one samay in vigrah gati.

Besides Vigrah gati , there are two  more conditions wherein a Jiva is Anahaarak. One is during the life period in 14th gunasthana of Ayoga Kevali. Since all yoga activity has stopped, his body does not require any nokarma particles . Nor does he have activities of mind or speech. Therefore he is Anahaarak for the antarmuhurta period of Ayoga kevali state.

Another condition is during Kevali Samudghat in 13 th Gunasthana of Sayoga Kevali. At the end of life period of Sayoga kevali he enters into Samudghata state to equalize the balance period of ayu karma with other Nam and gotra karmas. This is achieved by expanding the jiva body equal to entire lokakash. This process is carried out in total 7 samay wherein the body expands in steps. 1 Dand – body fills North South column. 2. Kapat- body fills north south – east west without any thickness. 3- Pratar- The body fills entire cubical state of Lokakash excluding the Vatavalay region. 4. Loka Puran- the body expands covering the entire lokakash. 5. Pratar- reverse process of reducing to cubical state. 6. Kapat- reverse process of filling like the door without thickness. 7. Dand- reverse process of filling North south column.  Next moment Kevali is back to his original form. Out of these the Pratar-Lokapuran-Pratar  are states with Karmana Kayayoga wherein the Kevali is Anahaarak for a period of 3 samay.

Therefore any Jiva is Anahaarak for a minimum period of 1 samay to maximum period of 3 samay. However if we examine in respect of all the jivas then we find that someone or other is always Anahaarak without any break. Similarly someone is ahaarak continuously and in respect of one jiva the maximum period can be innumerable kalpa kal.

In respect of Gunasthana, the ahaarak jivas will belong to all gunasthana from 1 to 13. On the other hand the Jiva will be Anahaarak in 1, 2, 4, 13 , 14 gunasthana only. This is so because these are the only gunasthanas in vigrah gati.

Conclusion

With this we come to the end of 14 marganas which form the base for  the knowledge of Jain Scriptures. These 14 marganas help in identifying Jivas of various categories with respect to which further details can be described. For example area occupied by each type of Jiva may be described, or the period of remaining in that particular margana may be described with details of minimum or maximum period. Overall this leads to very structured mechanism for detailing the scriptures.The entire Dhavla, Jayadhavla and Mahabandh scriptures use these Marganas extensively. An attempt is made to explain these in English here.  Since most of the hindi words do not have any equivalents in English hence they are retained as it is since in future it would be easier to speak in that terminology only. I hope the readers would find it useful. If there are any mistakes , readers may kindly bring them to my attention to rectify it. For further reading on the subject “ Samyak Gyan Chandrika” by Pandit Todarmalji or Dhavla Vol I &II  are recommended. 

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