____________________________________________________________________
[Footnote 1: _Prameyakamalamârta@n@da,_ pp. 38-43.]
[Footnote 2: See _Jaina Vârttika,_ p. 60.]
a description. This is directly against the view of the great Mîmâ@msa authority Prabhâkara [Footnote ref 1]. The soul in its pure state is possessed of infinite perception (_ananta-dars'ana_), infinite knowledge (_ananta-jñâna_), infinite bliss (_ananta-sukha_) and infinite power (_ananta-vîrya_) [Footnote ref 2]. It is all perfect. Ordinarily however, with the exception of a few released pure souls (_mukta-jîva_) all the other jîvas (_sa@msârin_) have all their purity and power covered with a thin veil of karma matter which has been accumulating in them from beginningless time. These souls are infinite in number. They are substances and are eternal. They in reality occupy innumerable space-points in our mundane world (_lokâkâs`a_), have a limited size (_madhyama-parimâ@na_) and are neither all-pervasive (_vibhu_) nor atomic (_anu_); it is on account of this that _jîva_ is called _Jivâstikâya_. The word _astikâya_ means anything that occupies space or has some pervasiveness; but these souls expand and contract themselves according to the dimensions of the body which they occupy at any time (bigger in the elephant and smaller in the ant life). It is well to remember that according to the Jains the soul occupies the whole of the body in which it lives, so that from the tip of the hair to the nail of the foot, wherever there may be any cause of sensation, it can at once feel it. The manner in which the soul occupies the body is often explained as being similar to the manner in which a lamp illumines the whole room though remaining in one corner of the room. The Jains divide the jîvas according to the number of sense-organs they possess. The lowest class consists of plants, which possess only the sense-organ of touch. The next higher class is that of worms, which possess two sense-organs of touch and taste. Next come the ants, etc., which possess touch, taste, and smell. The next higher one that of bees, etc., possessing vision in addition to touch, taste, and smell. The vertebrates possess all the five sense-organs. The higher animals among these, namely men, denizens of hell, and the gods possess in addition to these an inner sense-organ namely _manas_ by virtue of which they are