l souls are free, separate existences, whose
essence is pure intelligence. But they have a tendency towards action
and passion and are misled by false beliefs. For this reason, in the
existence which we know they are chained to bodies and are found not
only in Devas and in human beings but in animals, plants and inanimate
matter. The habitation of the soul depends on the merit or demerit which
it acquires and merit and demerit have respectively greater or less
influence during immensely long periods called Utsarpini and Avasarpini,
ascending and descending, in which human stature and the duration of
life increase or decrease by a regular law. Merit secures birth among
the gods or good men. Sin sends the soul to baser births, even in
inanimate substances. On this downward path, the intelligence is
gradually dimmed till at last motion and consciousness are lost, which
is not however regarded as equivalent to annihilation.

Another dogmatic exposition of the Jain creed is based on seven
principles, called soul, non-soul, influx, imprisonment, exclusion,
dissipation, release[254]. Karma, which in the ordinary language of
Indian philosophy means deeds and their effect on the soul, is here
regarded as a peculiarly subtle form of matter[255] which enters the
soul and by this influx (or asrava, a term well-known in Buddhism)
defiles and weighs it down. As food is transformed into flesh, so the
Karma forms a subtle body which invests the soul and prevents it from
being wholly isolated from matter at death. The upward path and
liberation of the soul are effected by stopping the entrance of Karma,
that is by not performing actions which give occasion to the influx, and
by expelling it. The most effective means to this end is
self-mortification, which not only prevents the entrance of new Karma
but annihilates what has accumulated.

Like most Indian sects, Jainism considers the world of transmigration as
a bondage or journey which the wise long to terminate. But joyless as is
its immediate outlook, its ultimate ideas are not pessimistic. Even in
the body the soul can attain a beatific state of perfect knowledge[256]
and above the highest heaven (where the greatest gods live in bliss for
immense periods though ultimately subject to transmigration) is the
paradise of blessed souls, freed from transmigration. They have no
visible form but consist of life throughout, and enjoy happiness beyond
compare. With a materialism characteristi