The World and Its Inhabitants
The word loka is Sanskrit for “world,” and recalls the traditional division of the universe into various worlds, specifically a three-fold division (triloka) into heaven, Earth, and hell. These are frequently referred to as the three worlds. Humans reside in the Middle World; below is hell; above is Ishat-pragbhara, where liberated souls live.
What is animism and how does it apply to Jainism?
The earliest forms of Hinduism seem to have roots in animism. Animism is the belief that nature is not comprised of dead matter, but is alive and filled with unseen spirits. Animists are likely to see a soul or self existing in trees, stones, rivers, and even heavenly bodies.
Five kinds of existents — or beings — reside in the loka. The most important is the jiva, translatable as “soul” or “life monad.” All that is nonsoul is divided into four kinds of being — motion, rest, atoms, and space. Jiva is eternal consciousness and is intermingled with ajiva or “nonjiva.” Karma binds jiva to nonjiva. It is jiva's goal to act in such a way that it wears away nonsoul, including karma.
How difficult is it for humans to shed the bonds of karma? There is an allegory that captures the futility and misery of human existence in The Story of Samaraditya, by Haridhadra, of the seventh century. In the story, a man leaves his home in quest of another country, promising new life and new experiences. In time, he is lost, hungry, and thirsty. A mad elephant charges at him, then a demoness with a sharp sword appears in his path. He seeks refuge in a distant banyan tree, whereupon he finds that he cannot climb the tree and dives into a well instead, only to be beset by a series of calamities.
The story proceeds:
A clump of reeds grew from its deep wall, and to this he clung,
While below him he saw terrible snakes, enraged at the sound of his falling;
And at the very bottom, known from the hiss of his breath, was a black and mighty python
With mouth agape, its body thick as the trunk of a heavenly elephant, with terrible red eyes
He thought, “My life will only last as long as these reeds hold fast,”
And he raised his head; and there, on the clump of reeds, he saw two large mice,
One white, one black, their sharp teeth ever gnawing at the roots of the reed-clump.
Then up came the wild elephant, and enraged the more at not catching him,
Charged time and again at the trunk of the banyan tree.
At the shock of his charge a honeycomb on a large branch
Which hung over the old well, shook loose and fell.
The man's whole body was stung by a swarm of angry bees,
But just by a chance, a drop of honey fell on his head,
Rolled down his brow, and somehow reached his lips,
And gave him a moment's sweetness. He longed for other drops,
And he thought nothing of the python, the snakes, the elephant, the mice, the well, or the bees,
In his excited craving for yet more drops of honey.
The meaning of the story? Against the myriad evils of the world, against its many hardships, human beings hanker for the most trivial pleasures of life.
