Compendium of Jainism: VIII ►The Doctrine of Lesya

Before dealing with some other aspects of Karma, it is instructive to discuss another doctrine which is closely connected with the Karma theory, that is the doctrine of Leśyās.

According to the concept of the Jaina thinkers, there are an infinite number of souls in the universe. All of them possess the essential characteristics of perfect knowledge, bliss, etc. The souls, however, differ on account of their entanglement with the subtle and invisible atomic forms of Karmic matter. The bright and blissful soul becomes blurred and clouded by Karmic matter which is set in motion by the passions and the activities of the body, mind and speech. The vibrations of the activities and of the kaṣāyas determine the nature and material of bondage. The totality of Karma amalgamated by a soul induces on it a transcendental colour, a kind of complexion which cannot be perceived by our eyes. That is called Leśyā. There are six Leśyās: black, blue, grey, yellow, red and white. They have also a prominently moral bearing; for the Leśyā indicates the character of the individual who owns it. The first three belong to bad characters and the last three to good characters.^[1] in other words, the first three are the resultants of evil and the last three of good emotions.

Almost all the Jaina philosophers who have dealt with the subject of Karma have referred to and expanded theory of Leśyā. Everything which is matter, or mixed up with matter has some kind or other of touch, taste, smell and odour. Our mind and its activity are no exception. They are material and have colour, which they change with every change of their thought activity." 'A black-hearted man', and 'red with rage', 'pale with fear', green with jealously'; these are familiar phrases. Our thoughts and emotions have a very intimate connection with colours. We may be said to have thought-paints; but the primary ones are black, blue, grey, yellow, pink or red and white. The Leśyās are the soul's vibrations effected by mild and strong passions.^[2] They illustrate the temperamental grades of greed, etc. The colour- shades, as enumerated are transcendental and not physical.

Nemicandra Siddhānta Cakravarti has Stated that according to the knowers of the attributes of Leśyā, bhava Leśyā (thought paint) is that which stains the soul and which the soul makes it his own resulting in puṇya (merit) and papa (demerit).^[3] Colour or paint is 'a condition of the matter, The soul itself is without form, taste, smell, colour or touch. Colour is an essential and peculiar character of matter. Consciousness is the characteristic of the soul and modifications do take place on account of thought activities. These modifications are also formless and colourless. When the activities of the body, mind and speech as also the passions create vibrations, there takes place, as already noted, an influx of matter into the soul which causes bondage. It is this vibratory activity which becomes coloured by the operation of the Karmas.^[4] We have already noted that it is the vibratory activities which determine not only the nature of Karmic matter but also the number of tannic molecules that bind the soul and that it is the intensity of the passions that- determines the duration of the bondage and the character of its fruition.

As stated already, there are six kinds of Leśyās (paints), namely: Kṛṣṇa (black), nīla (blue), kapota (dove-grey), teja (yellow), padma (pink) and śukla (white).^[5] It may however be noted that from the view-point of modifications, these colours are innumerable. Leśyā is of two kinds, bhava-Leśyā and dravya-Leśyā. The former is thought-paint as explained while the letter is the product of body-making Karma. The beings in different states of existence have different bodily colours. The hellish beings are black while the other beings have any one of the six colours. The bodies in the uttama (supreme), madhyama (middle) and jaghanya (lowest) regions have the colours of the sun, the moon and green. The water-bodied, fire-bodied and air-bodied souls have white, yellow and indescribable coloured bodies.

The operation places (udaya-sthānas) of the passions are innumerable spatial units of the universe. The bad passions or the bad thought-paints are black, blue and grey while those of the good thoughts are yellow, pink and white. The bad thought paints are either intense, more intense, or most intense. Similarly the good ones are mild, milder or mildest. By the decrease or increase in the intensity of the bad or good thought activity or passions, the thought-paint becomes modified. By the increase of pain, the thought-paint becomes modified through grey, blue and black. By the increase of the purity of the soul or good thoughts, the progress is through yellow, pink and white. It is thus clear that while the worst thought activity is black, the highest purity will disclose white. However, the Leśyās are more illustrative of the degree of intensity in terms of colour rather than actual colour.

Nemicandra Siddhānta Cakravarti has given a very illuminating example of the different thought-paints occasioned by the activities of the mind.^[6] Six travellers miss their way in the central part of a forest and see a tree laden with fruits. Naturally they have a desire to eat the fruits. The first one wants to uproot the entire tree and eat the fruits; he is actuated by black thought- paint. The second one wants to cut the trunk and eat the fruits, he is actuated by blue thought-paint. The third wishes to cut the < branches and eat the fruits; he is actuated by the grey thought- paint. These three intended to cause great harm to the tree to get its fruits, though in differing degrees. The remaining were better type of individuals who desired to have their object fulfilled without destroying the generating parts of the tree. The fourth one wanted to cut the twigs that had fruits; he is of yellow thought-paint. The next one wanted to pluck the fruits only and eat them; he has got pink thought-paint. The last man wanted to eat only the fruits that had fallen down. He did not want to do any harm to the tree and he was therefore the best man with white thought-paint.

The different thought-paints thus exhibit the inner activity of the mind showing that the means to be employed to achieve the ends vary with the mental and moral characteristics of each individual. What then are the characteristics of a person with black thought-paint? He is wrathful, always hostile, wicked, violent, unmindful of the consequences of injuring six kinds of living beings, devoid of piety and compassion, uncontrollable, unprincipled, slow, lacking in common-sense, unskilful, given to sensual pleasures, proud, deceitful, mischievous, lazy and mysterious. The person with the blue thought-paint is extremely sleepy and deceitful, ignorant, rude, wicked, careless, intensely greedy towards worldly possessions and riches, engaged in sinful undertakings and easily irritable. The person with the grey thought-paint is irritable by temperament, talks ill of others,' boastful troublesome, morose, frightful by nature, envious, insults others, crooked, vile, heretical, jealous, dishonest, distrustful, indifferent, vainglorious, unmindful of loss or gain to others, desires to die on the battle-field, generous to flattery and indiscreet in his actions.

The three kinds of good men have varying thought-paints. The person with the yellow thought-paint knows what to do or not to do, dutiful, steady, knows what is fit or unfit for enjoyment, is free from anger, pride, deceit and greed, self-controlled, impartial, compassionate, charitable, calm and gentle. Gentler qualities characterise the person with pink or red thought-paint: charitable, kind, benevolent, ever ready to do good to others, humble, stead­fast, well-disciplined, restrained, forbearing, devoted to saints and teachers- and strives after the highest good. The person with the white thought-paint is impartial, engages in meditation to the Law (dharma) and Truth, not desirous of enjoyment of any kind, practises samitis and guptis, subdues his senses, calm, free from passions and detached from worldly affairs.^[7]

These thought-paints change according to the degree of change in the purity of mind and thought. These changes bring in twenty six kinds of variations in the six thought-paints.

It should be clear from what has been said above, that the Leśyās are different conditions produced by the influence of different Karmas; they are not therefore dependent on the nature of the soul but on the Karmas which accompany it. What produces Leśyā is therefore the subtle substance of Karmic matter. That is why the Leśyās have colours, tastes, smells, touches, degrees, character, variety, duration, effect, etc.

The black, blue, grey, red, yellow and white Leśyās have, respectively, the colour of a rain-cloud, of a blue ākāśa or sky, the colour of a pigeon, of vermilion, of orpiment and of flowing milk. Their tastes are, respectively, more bitter than the fruit of neem-tree, more pungent than Trikaṭua, sourer than that of unripe mango, infinitely better than that of honey, and infinitely better than that of milk or pounded milk. The smell of the first three bad Leśyās is infinitely worse than that of the corpse of a cow, dog or snake; while the smell of the three good Leśyās is infinitely more pleasant than that of fragrant flowers and of perfumes when they are pounded. Touch of the first three is infinitely worse than that of a saw or the tongue of a cow while that of the last three is infinitely more pleasant than that of cotton, butter or sirīsā flower.^[8]

Since the thought-paints vary with the intensity of passions and the activities, their presence and the degree of colouration would depend upon the stage of spiritual development of each individual. Even a wrong believer in the first stage can have white thought-paint, if his passions are very mild while a right believer in the fourth stage may have black thought-paint, if he is actuated by strong passions. Only the white thought-paint is formed in a person who has attained any of the stages of spiritual development from the 8th to 13th. No thought-paint is possible as there are no vibrations in the 14th stage.^[9] As it is the fruition of the Karmas that gives rise to imperfect dispositions, it must follow that purging of Karmas necessarily brings about a change in the thought paint. That is why the scriptures mention that there is the presence of white colouration in the case of the omniscient and those whose passions are subsided or destroyed. The question of white coloura­tion in the omniscient is only from the conventional point of view considering the previous disposition; but in reality, there is no colouration in the omniscient owing to the absence of activity.

In dealing with the fourteen ways of search (mārgaṅasthānas) for the causes of modifications of the Jiva into different states of existence, the modifications suffered by Jiva have been examined from the point of Leśyā in the first part of the 'Ṣaṭkhanḍāgama'. The Jīvas are possessed of six kinds of Leśyās which are the result of the yogic activities actuated by the passions. It has been stated that the six categories of Leśyās can be judged according as the passions are most intense, more intense, intense, mild, milder and mildest. The state where there is absence of Leśyā is Aleśyā. From the Leśyās, it is possible to understand the moral and spiritual condition of a Jiva. The first three Leśyās are regarded as signs of sinfulness while the last three as auspicious.

It would be evident that the Jaina thinkers have studied with utmost care and intelligence the two subjects of passions and colouration (Leśyā). The interaction of passion and activity in attracting the Karmic matter causing it to assume different paints or colours has been discussed with convincing details. How the smell, taste, touch and colour vary with the intensity of emotional activity has been illustrated. by a simple example. This is a significant contribution in the field of psychology by the Jaina thinkers. That the changes in colouration take place due to the degree of intensity or mildness of emotional activity is accepted by modern psychologists. The soul, in its pure condition, is free from Karma. The impact of Karmic matter actuated by thought-activities and passions is as wonderful as it is mysterious. Knowledge of this doctrine will lead to a correct understanding of the pure nature of the soul and the deleterious effects of inauspicious Karmas. Kundakunda has stated that is from the practical point of view that the thought-paints occur in the soul till it reaches the stage of spirituality and that the souls which are liberated from the cycle of existence are free from colour, etc.^[10]

The importance of this doctrine in the practice of different kinds of meditation has been noted by Jinabhadra. He mentions, like other Jaina authors on Yoga, that there are four kinds of meditation; depressed (ārta), violent (raudra) religious (dharmya) and white (śukla). What are the moral and spiritual qualities of an individual practising each of these four types of meditations has been referred to by him, during the course of his discussions. A person desirous of engaging himself in meditation has to concentrate his mind on one subject and free it from all distrac­tions. Concentration is a mental process and there must be eradication of distracting activities. There are persons whose minds are full of worldly miseries; while there are others whose intentions and inclinations are wicked, revengeful or harmful The thought-paints of these persons would be black, blue or dove-grey only differing in degree as to their intensity. Delusion, attachment, aversion and perversity would mark their activities. For one engaged in violent meditation, the three kinds of inauspicious thought-paints would be more or less in the superlative degree- In persons engaged in the last two kinds of meditions, thoughts would be auspicious and their minds would be progressing gradually towards spiritualism until there is realization or insight into the real nature of the soul. In the śukla-dhyāna, there will be stability of mind, freedom from delusion, discrimination and non- attachment to the body or other worldly objects. Naturally the thought-paints in an ascetic who has reached this stage would be white.^[11]

The Ajīvikas who followed the doctrines of Makhali Gośāla also recognise the theory of Karma and thought-paints. Gośāla, however, followed a peculiar course in the interpretation of the doctrine. According to him the Buddhists or their Bhikṣus were of the type of blue-class as there were amongst them preachers of ease who favoured' the ways of comfort. The Nigganthas were regarded as being of the type of red-class as they had renounced the comfort. They were, however, regarded as inferior to Ajīvika in adhering to the loin-cloth. He classified his lay adherents as of the type of yellow-paint and his staunch adherents as of the white type.^[12]

Buddhism also classified Karma in terms of colours: black, white, mixed black and white and not black and white, it does not seem to accept Karma as a subtle form of matter of minute particles. The Yoga school has adopted the same classi­fication. Dasgupta suggests that the idea of black and white Karma in Yoga philosophy was probably suggested by the Jaina view.^[13]

Jainism does not propound that the soul itself becomes coloured by the Leśyās. The Leśyās are primarily associated with the Karmic matter whose reflection on the soul may be likened to the reflection of. A coloured flower or object on a white crystal. It is interesting to mention that the Theosophists have also a theory of colouration related to passions and thought-activities. They say that there are three mortal bodies the physical, the astral and the mental. The development of the astral body (sūkṣma 4anra) differs enormously in different persons; it is this body which yields the experience of pleasure and pain, which is thrown into action by passion, desire and emotion, and in which reside the centres of our sense organs of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. If the passion, desire and emotion are low, sensual and animal, then its matter is coarse, its vibrations are consequently and compara­tively slow, and its colours are dark and unattractive-brown, dark red and green and their combinations, lit from time to time with flashes of scarlet. The meaning of colours on the astral bodies, the pictures of which are said to have been drawn by an artist, to the descriptions given by clairvoyant investigators, has been explained thus: brown-red indicates sensuality and greed; grey-green indicates deceit and cunning; brown indicates selfishness; scarlet on left of head indicates anger; yellow round the head indicates intelligence; grey-blue above the head indicates primitive religious feeling...; touches of deep rose colour indicate beginning of love. As evolution goes on, the matter becomes finer and the colours clearer, purer and more brilliant. In a developed astral body, green indicates sympathy and adaptability; rose indicates love; blue indicates religious feeling; yellow indicates intelligence; violet above head indicates spirituality.^[14]

It is possible to interpret the Leśyā theory in terms of modern psychology, especially of parapsychology. The bhava Leśyā has a psychological significance. It is an aura created round the soul due to psychic effects and yoga. It is dependent upon the activity of the mind. The six primary colours are effects of the Karmic influx arising out of mental states and events. Every psychosis brings some after-effects which are both physical and psychic. It is possible to show, by proper analysis and investigation, that psychic phenomena exist and are detectable.^[15]

In passing, I may mention that some scholars have opined t. hat Mahāvira borrowed this doctrine of Leśyā from Gosāla. There is no substance in this view. The Karma doctrine is an integral part of Jain ism; it has been developed by the Jainas on a scientific basis and forms the very backbone of Leśyā. It is a question of inheritance of common idea current in the Sramana schools.