Jainism: Lesya - Jaina Theory Of Coloured Destiny

By Amrit Gangar

The 'soul' metaphysics in Jainism has a very interesting colour-coded concept called the Lesya . According to Jainism, Lesya is determined by the adherence of karmic matter to the jiva or soul, resulting from both good and bad actions. This adherence is compared to the way in which particles of dust adhere to a body smeared with oil.

The jiva is classified according to the good or bad emotions that hold sway. Thus the salesi ( lesya prone) are all those who are swayed by any of the emotions and the alesi are those liberated beings ( siddhas ) who no longer experience any feelings, neither pain nor pleasure. Lesya , according to Sutrakritanga , is a term that signifies 'colour' (in Sanskrit it means 'light' or 'tint'). And as Jaina scholar K C Jain says, "the Ajivika expression Chalabhitiyo as explained by Buddhaghosha implies the same method of classification of men in terms of six colours."

According to Prof H Jacobi, Mahavira borrowed the idea of the six Lesyas from the Ajivikas and altered it to bring it into harmony with the rest of his own doctrines. However, this view has been contested because the idea of the six Lesyas was prevalent in Jainism earlier than Mahavira. As hinted in the Acharanga Sutra , the classification of living beings in terms of six colours could be traced back to Parsva's doctrine of six Jivanikayas .

Comparatively speaking, the Mahabharata expression Jiva-Satvarnah hardly leaves room for doubt that Lesya is a term indicative of colour. The Buddhist idea of the contamination of mind by the influx of impurities from outside illustrated by the simile of a piece of cloth dyed blue, red, yellow, or the like would seem to have some bearing on the Jaina doctrine of the Lesyas . (Mahavira and His Times, K C Jain).

Depending on the karmic density, the colour-scheme for the six Lesyas which also include taste, smell and touch is as follows: Krishna/Black Lesya, Neel/Blue Lesya, Kapota/Grey Lesya, Tejo/Red or Yellow Lesya, Padma/Pink Lesya and Sukla/White Lesya. There are variations in colour decodings by different scholars though essentially they imply the same meaning. The black Lesya , for instance, has the colour of a rain cloud, a buffalo's horn or it has a colour darker than that of collyrium. The blue Lesya has the colour of the blue Asoka having red flowers. The grey Lesya has the colour of the neck of a pigeon or that of ash. The red Lesya has the colour of vermilion or red lead. The yellow Lesya has the colour of orpiment or that of turmeric. The white Lesya has the colour of a conch.

The taste scheme

The taste of the black Lesya is infinitely more bitter than that of neem leaves. The taste of the blue Lesy a is infinitely worse than that of a wild thorn. The taste of the grey Lesya is infinitely sourer than that of an unripe mango. The taste of the red Lesya is sour-sweet like that of a half ripe mango. The taste of the yellow Lesya is sweet like honey while the taste of the white Lesya is sweeter than sugar.

The smell scheme

The smell of the bad Lesyas (viz of the first three) is infinitely worse than that of a dead cow, dog or snake. The smell of the three good Lesyas is infinitely more pleasant than that of fragrant flowers or pleasant perfumes.

The touch scheme

The touch of the bad Lesyas is infinitely worse than that of a saw, the tongue of a cow, or the leaf of the teak tree. The touch of the three good Lesyas is infinitely more pleasant and soft than that of cotton, butter or Sirisha flowers. It is the subjective inclination that induces the jiva to activity and imparts to the jiva a certain tinge. Obviously, the six tinges described above suggest an ascending order of purity, 'black' being the worst and 'white' being the best.

Jainism scholar and the author of Kalpa Sutra , K C Lalwani provides an interesting example. "Six persons with these sixtinges desire to eat the fruits of a tree. How would they behave? The person with black tinge will cut the tree at the very root. The one with blue tinge will chop its branches. The one with ash tinge will cut one branch only, bearing fruit for his consumption. The one with red tinge will pluck all the fruits, green as well as ripe ones. The one with pink tinge will pluck only the ripe fruits. The one with white tinge will take only those ripe fruits that have dropped on the ground, but will not touch the tree.

Thus, the Jaina concept of Lesya is quite unique in its treatment of the meta-theory of karma.