Article: Jain universe

Temples and trees on Mount Meru
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The Jain universe is perfectly structured and ordered. One of its governing principles is symmetry and repetition, so that “To know one part is to know the whole” (Granoff 2009: 55). This universe is “a self-replicating composite” (Granoff 2009: 56). Examples of this recurring, symmetrical structure include:

• how the various categories of deities are organised socially along the same principles as human societies, in which the ideal form of government is kingship, and so the gods and asuras are governed by kings – indras

• how each of the halves into which the continents of the middle world are divided is a replica of the Jambū-dvīpa

• how Airāvata, the northern region of the Jambū-dvīpa, is an exact replica of Bharata, the southern region

• the ever-repeating cycles of descending and ascending periods of time in some parts of the universe.

Distances separating the suns and moons
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

Jain cosmology is based on mathematics, both calculations and geometry formulae. Mathematics is an area of knowledge where the Jain contribution has been very substantial.

The Jain universe is thought of in terms of dimensions and quantities of units. The mathematics of the universe are discussed at length in philosophical and sacred literature, starting with definitions of time and space units. Jain thinkers have produced a vast vocabulary to describe and understand units of time and space, going from the smallest to the largest, beyond what can be imagined.

Components of Jain cosmology are classified in one of the following ways:

• numerable – saṃkhyeya
• innumerable – asaṃkhyeya
• infinite – ananta.

The smallest unit of physical matter is the atom. Infinite combinations of atoms make up the smallest unit of measurement that can be counted. This is called the ‘extremely fine’.

Similarly, the Jains have gone into great detail in analysing the extremely large or highly numerous (Plofker in Granoff 2009: 65ff.).

Cosmic man
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The world space where all the souls live is divided into three worlds, frequently represented as the cosmic man. Karma is closely connected with cosmology in the Jain tradition, so being familiar with the complex nature of the Jain universe is essential to fully understand Jain belief.

The souls move through the three worlds in a cycle of rebirth which only ends when a perfect spiritual state is reached. When a soul has progressed spiritually far enough to reach omniscience or perfect knowledge, it has no karma and can break free of the cycle of births, becoming a liberated soul or siddha. In the meantime, the cycle of birth takes place throughout the three worlds.

Within world space, the three worlds are:

• the lower world, labelled adho-loka – formed of seven hells
• the middle world, called madhya-loka – the only place where human beings live
• the upper world, known as ūrdhva-loka – comprising the heavens.

There is also an area at the top of the worlds where the liberated souls live in neverending bliss, called the siddha-śilā.

Snakes and ladders
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

All souls move around the worlds through the cycle of birth, in which they are born in different states in the various areas of the three worlds. Souls are born into one of four states. Which state and which world depends on their spiritual condition.

The spiritual state of a soul stems from its karma, which derives from actions in its previous life and, to some degree, on karma from lives before that one. Therefore a soul may be born into very different conditions in successive lives. For example, a soul born in a heaven in one life may behave so badly that it gains huge amounts of very negative karma and is then reborn in a hell in its next life. There it will suffer great torments and find it extremely hard to get enough positive karma to rise to a higher body in a better world.

However, just as spiritual progress is not simple, so the soul’s movement around the different worlds is not straightforward. Spiritual improvement is a very gradual, difficult process and involves many births in many different areas of the worlds in a sequence that is neither all forward progress nor all downward spiral.

The soul is born in one of the following states – gati:

• a human being – manuṣya-gati
• a heavenly being, living in the heavens – deva-gati
• an infernal being, living in the hells – naraka-gati
• an animal or plant – tiryag-gati.

Souls that have a greater level of spiritual development are born into higher worlds. Even so, being born into a heaven is worse than being born into the middle world as a human being. Only souls born as humans can reach omniscience and thus liberation of the soul, and humans are born only in the middle world.

Although the beings in the upper world are heavenly beings or gods, not all gods and goddesses live in the upper world. Deities live in all of the worlds, and also in a space between the highest hell and the surface of the earth, just below the middle world of humans.

Infernal tortures
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The lower world is a place of agony. Residents of the hells suffer more the lower they live. Artists love to create vivid pictures of life there and the wide range of tortures hellish beings go through.

Souls are born in the hells because they have behaved violently and been extremely possessive. Such attitudes and actions break fundamental rules governing Jain life. If the hellish beings do not behave well enough to build up enough good karma to be reborn into a higher world, they are reborn next in a lower hell.

Pairs of gods in their heavenly palaces
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The beings – deities – that live in the upper world never suffer. Instead they enjoy constant pleasure and happiness.

However, even though they are gods, they have not reached spiritual perfection. They are still souls trapped within the cycle of births. Since only human beings can progress spiritually to omniscience and then salvation, being born a heavenly being is still at least one birth away from liberation.