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Loka to body · Gommaṭasāra 164–165

The nesting

स्कन्ध · अण्डर · आवास · पुलवि

Loka, skandha, aṇḍara, āvāsa, pulavi, body: six levels, each holding innumerable times the space-points of the universe of the next — and the text's own map to say it: Jambūdvīpa, Bharata, Kośala, Sāketa, houses.

The Gommaṭasāra counts the gross nigoda downward. The bodies are innumerable times the space-points of the loka; a skandha holds as many aṇḍaras, an aṇḍara as many āvāsas, an āvāsa as many pulavis, a pulavi as many bodies — the same multiplier, asaṃkhyāta × the loka's pradeśas, at every step. Then, so that the structure can be pictured, gāthā 165 gives the analogy: skandha is Jambūdvīpa, aṇḍara is Bharata, āvāsa is Kośala, pulavi is Sāketa, one body is a house.

The map draws the six as frames within frames, the analogy beside each, and the innermost as a field of souls that fades into ananta. The Śvetāmbara sūtras say less and not otherwise: the Prajñāpanā gives innumerable nigodas, each of infinite souls. The nesting is the Digambara text's and is printed as its.

the lokaskandhaas Jambūdvīpa× asaṃkhyātaaṇḍaraas Bharata× asaṃkhyātaāvāsaas Kośala× asaṃkhyātapulavias Sāketa× asaṃkhyātaone bodyas a houseananta soulsthe nesting — Gommaṭasāra 164–165, the Digambara text's structureeach level holds asaṃkhyāta × the loka's space-points of the nextthe 563 kinds of living being — Jīva-vicāra22 · 6 · 20 · 303 · 198 · 14four are nigoda — and hold infinitely more souls than the other 559one breath: seventeen lives and a fraction, each 256 āvalikā65,536 in a muhūrta — the teachers say seventeen and a halfavyavahāra-rāśinever once trasa · infinitevyavahāra-rāśibeen out, come backSiddhaśilā608 liberated in six months and eight samayas608 leave the first heap in their placethe ledger — the commentators on Gommaṭasāra 197, and the thokaḍāevery siddha there has ever beenthe souls in one nigoda body — infinite times as many, off the frameNigoda: the smallest body, the most soulsa body too small to see, in which infinite souls are born, breathe and die togethereverywhere in the loka; four of the 563 kinds of living beingone body holds infinite times every siddha there has ever been — Gommaṭasāra 196608souls liberated, and 608 out of nigoda, every six months and eight samayas
Nigoda: the smallest body, the most souls — The nesting highlighted

Measurements and counts

Levels6
Multiplierasaṃkhyāta × the loka's space-points, each step
AnalogyJambūdvīpa · Bharata · Kośala · Sāketa · houses
Innermostone body · ananta souls
SourceGommaṭasāra Jīvakāṇḍa 164–165 — Digambara

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10