The Tattvārtha Sūtra presents ajīva as the entire domain of non-soul reality, articulated through five fundamental substances: pudgala (matter), dharma (medium of motion), adharma (medium of rest), ākāśa (space), and kāla (time). Each of these is eternal in its own nature yet participates in change through its modes, and all are devoid of consciousness. Together they form the structured field within which conscious beings move, rest, act, and undergo karmic bondage. The text thus portrays a universe in which soul and non-soul are distinct yet inseparably co-present, each side of the polarity retaining its own integrity.

Among the ajīva substances, pudgala is the most tangible and dynamic. Characterized by touch, taste, smell, and color, it exists both as indivisible atoms and as aggregates that constantly combine and separate. Bodies, sense-organs, and even karmic matter are understood as configurations of pudgala, undergoing transformation without losing their underlying material nature. Crucially, pudgala alone among the non-soul substances directly binds with the soul, becoming karmic matter that conditions experience and bondage. In this way, the material continuum is not merely external scenery but the very medium through which moral and spiritual consequences are embodied.

The remaining four ajīva substances do not bind to the soul but provide the indispensable conditions that make any embodied existence possible. Dharma, as the medium of motion, and adharma, as the medium of rest, pervade the universe and silently enable movement and stillness without themselves initiating either. Ākāśa, or space, accommodates all other substances, allowing them to coexist without obstruction, while kāla, or time, makes sequence, duration, and transformation intelligible by providing the framework for change. These four do not act in the manner of efficient causes; rather, they are the ever-present background conditions within which both souls and matter carry out their respective processes.

Seen together, these descriptions of ajīva invite a contemplative appreciation of reality as an ordered interplay of conscious and non-conscious principles. The soul’s journey is never isolated from this intricate web: motion and rest, spatial location, temporal sequence, and material embodiment all shape the field in which karmic bondage and the possibility of liberation unfold. Ajīva, in this vision, is not an adversary to be rejected but a precise and multifaceted context that both constrains and reveals the soul’s freedom.