Between Births
A soul leaving a body is not nowhere. It is on the lattice of space, moving along its rows toward the place its next body will form, carrying only its karmic and fiery bodies, taking nothing in on the turns - and it arrives in one, two, three or four samayas, never more. The Tattvārthasūtra gives the passage six sūtras and the commentators give its four shapes names.
The samaya chapter states the rule: one samaya straight, one more for every turn, three turns at most. This chapter draws it. Motion is anuśreṇi, along the rows of space-points - the six directions and no others - so a destination not on the soul's own row costs a turn for each change of axis, and the loka's shape, with its narrow waist and its corners, can force three. The bhāṣya names the four passages: iṣu-gati, the arrow, no turn; pāṇimuktā, thrown from the palm, one; lāṅgalikā, the plough, two; gomūtrikā, the ox's trail, three.
What travels is less than a person. The gross body is left where it fell; speech, mind and breath, which are made of matter taken in, stop. What goes is the soul with its two subtle bodies, the karmic and the fiery, and in transit only the kārmaṇa yoga is at work. On a bent passage the soul is anāhāraka for one, two or three samayas - the samayas of the bends - and takes in the matter of its new body only on arriving.
The second view sets one passage on a clock beside the eight samayas of the omniscient's expansion, because they are the two journeys in the atlas that are counted in samayas, and the two that the last journey, one samaya and no turn, is the limit of.
Measurements and counts
| Shortest | 1 samaya - no turn |
|---|---|
| Longest | 4 samayas - three turns |
| Along | the rows of space - anuśreṇi, 2.27 |
| Yoga in transit | kārmaṇa only - 2.26 |
| Without intake | one, two or three samayas - 2.31 |
| Goes with the soul | the karmic and the fiery bodies |
| Source | Tattvārthasūtra 2.26–31 with the bhāṣya |