Ajiva

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In Jainism, ajiva is anything that has no soul or life, the polar opposite of jiva. Because ajiva has no life, it does not accumulate karma and cannot die. Examples of ajiva include chairs, computers, paper, and plastic.

Contents

[edit] Five Categories of Ajiva

In Jainism, there are five categories which Ajiva can be placed into:

  • Dharmastikay (Medium of Motion)
  • Adharmastikay (Medium of Rest)
  • Akashastikay (Space)
  • Pudgalastikay (Matter)
  • Kal (Time)

[edit] Dharma-Astikay

Dharmastikay is formed from the two words: Dharma & Astikay. Dharma here isn't referring to religion, but instead its referring to the medium of motion. Astikay itself is formed of two words: Asti & Kay. Asti means space, body or mode and Kay means collection. So Astikay means a collection of spaces or regions. Dharmastikay denotes the medium of motion for things in the universe. In the absence of this medium, livng things or jiva would not be able to move.

[edit] Adharma-Astikay

Adharmastikay is also formed from two words: Adharma & Astikay. Adharma in this case means the medium of rest. In the absence of this medium, Living things or jiva would continuously move.

[edit] Akash-Astikay

Akash means space and so all the space in the universe is called Akash. In Jainism, Akash is divided into two parts: Lokakash (Lok) and Alokakash (Alok). Jiva, Pudgal, Dharmastikay, and Adharmastikay exist only in Lokakash. Alokakash is an empty space and does not contain any Jiva, Pudgal, Dharmastikay, and Adharmastikay.

[edit] Pudgal-Astikay

The word Pudgal is made up of two terms: Pud means supplement (addition) and Gal means disintegration (division). In other words, what continuously changes by supplementation and/or division is called Pudgal or matter. All matter in the universe are called Pudgals. Pudgal has form and shape. Pudgal can be experienced by touching, tasting, smelling, or seeing. Like Jiva, Pudgal is also mobile. According to Jainism, The karma particles that attach to our souls are also Pudgal. Pudgal can only be divided and subdivided to a certain extent that it is not possible to further subdivide it. This indivisible part of Pudgal, which is separated from the main pudgal, is called Paramanu. A paramanu is much more minute than even an atom. When a Paramanu is attached to the main pudgal, it is called a Pradesh. These subatomic Paramanus are too minute to be detected by normal vision, but they can be combined. Thus when a paramanu is combined with one or more other paramanus, they are called a skandha which are more or less like a molecules. Part of skandha is called desh. Such sknadhas may be large or small. Small skandhas may be invisible to the eye, but they can be seen when the combinations are larger.

[edit] Kal

Kal refers to time that brings forth changes. Past, present, and future are the different modes of time and are measured in terms of years, months, days, hours, minutes or seconds. For practical purposes a second happens to be the finest measurement of time. Jainism however, recognizes a very small measurement of time known as samay which is an infinitely small part of a second.


Indivisible time = 1 Samay (smallest unit of measurement)
Countless Samayas = 1 Avalika
16777216 Avalikas = 1 Muhurt (48 minutes)
30 Muhurtas = 1 day and night
15 Days and nights = 1 Paksha
2 Pakshas = 1 Month
12 Months = 1 Year
Countless years = 1 Palyopam
1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion) Palyopams = 1 Sagaropam
1,000,000,000,000,000 Sagaropams = 1 Utsarpini or Avasarpini
1 Utsarpini + Avasarpini = 1 Kalchakra (One time cycle)