Some questions and answers about Jain philosophy

I have got some interesting questions in Jain communities that I have answered. Some of  those are reproduced here.

Q1      Does the soul have to wait till the "right" kind of gati, in the right circumstance is available? if it has to wait where does it wait? in the same bhoomi where the body passed away or in some other place?

Ans: No, the soul has not to wait. It starts immediately from the place of death and body. Other questions therefore not applicable.

Q2 Does a soul that has left the body still have its past memories? or does it lose them after having left the body? or does it maintain them and then loses them as soon as it takes another birth?

Ans: All these depend on a particular soul. In most of the cases soul looses its memory with in few moments.

Q3 Does a soul experience time the way humans do? like does it have to "wait" from one transition to another?

Ans: As answered earlier it has not to wait. The time span is so short that it can not even perceive (not more than four samayas)

Q4 If many bodies have died together, like in a war or bomb blast etc, can these souls interact with one another in any way? or with people (like ghosts) Can they see the world without eyes the way we see things with our eyes? can they hear and smell and taste and feel without any of those organs? if yes then how? if no then what do they experience?

Ans: No they can not interact with each other. As they do not have any senses (dravya indriya) they can not feel touch, taste etc. They experience Karmafal only.

Q5  If a soul has to travel from one Kshetra to take birth in another, how fast does it travel? Is the journey immediate or is there a speed limit for souls, like there is for light... this question sounds silly but its very fundamental in numerous ways

 Ans:There is no speed limit. Time factor is decieded upon turns. If it goes in straight line it takes one samaya. If it turns once it takes two samayas. At a maximum it takes three turns, hence four samayas.

Thanks,
Jyoti Kothari