In Jain Darshan, the “chicken–egg” type question (who came first, which created which?) is handled very clearly through the ideas of anādi (beginningless) and anekānt (many-sided view) – and this is exactly how Bhagavatī Sūtra answers Gautam’s repeated “first–cause” type questions.

I’ll connect it step‑by‑step with:

• jīva–ajīva
• loka–aloka
• and similar “who created whom / what came first?” questions.

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1. Basic point from Bhagavatī Sūtra–style answers

In Bhagavatī Sūtra, whenever Gautam asks questions like:

• “Who is the first doer?”
• “When did this chain start?”
• “What is the very first cause?”

Bhagavān Mahāvīr again and again gives the same fundamental message:

• Saṁsāra (cycle), jīva, ajīva, karma – all are anādi (without beginning).
• What we see is an endless chain of mutual conditions, not a single first starting point.

So, like chicken and egg:

• You can say, “From one standpoint, egg comes from chicken.”
• From another, “That chicken itself came from an egg.”
• If you keep going backward, you never reach a “first chicken” or “first egg”.

The chain is beginningless.

Exactly this logic is applied in Jainism to jīva–ajīva and loka–aloka questions.

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2. Jīva and Ajīva – who created whom?

Question type: “Did jīva (soul) come first, or ajīva (matter)? Does one create the other?”

Jain answer:

1. Both are eternal dravyas (substances).

- Jīva: conscious substance. - Ajīva: non‑conscious substances (pudgala, dharma, adharma, ākāśa, kāla). They are co‑eternal, existing from anādi‑kāl (beginningless time).

1. No one creates the other.

- Jīva never becomes ajīva. - Ajīva never becomes jīva. - They only interact and mutually condition each other’s states (paryāya).

1. “Chicken–egg” angle:

- Bondage of karma: jīva binds pudgalik karma (ajīva) from anādi‑kāl. - That karma again conditions the jīva, so new bondage arises. - If we ask, “Which karma was the first one that ever bound this jīva?” – the reply is: there is no first karma; the karma‑bandh is anādi.

So, just as we cannot find a first chicken or first egg, we also cannot find a first moment when jīva and ajīva started relating. Their relation of bondage is beginningless, though it is endable through mokṣa.

You can read a simple explanation of jīva–ajīva and dravya here

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3. Loka and Aloka – did one arise from the other?

Question type: “Is loka (universe) created inside aloka? Did aloka come first then loka, or loka first then aloka?”

Jain view:

1. Loka and aloka are both parts of ākāśa‑dravya (space).

- Ākāśa is one eternal dravya. - It has two regions: - Loka‑ākāśa: the finite portion where other dravyas exist – jīva, pudgala, dharma, adharma, kāla. - Aloka‑ākāśa: the infinite portion beyond loka, where only ākāśa exists (no jīva, no pudgala, no motion/rest‑media).

1. Neither is “created” from the other.

- Loka‑ākāśa is not produced out of aloka‑ākāśa. - Aloka‑ākāśa is not produced out of loka‑ākāśa. - Both regions of space are eternal aspects of the same ākāśa‑dravya.

1. “Chicken–egg” angle here:

- If we ask: “First there was aloka and then loka came?” – that would imply creation in time. Jain Darshan rejects a first moment of creation. - Instead, from anādi‑kāl: - Loka exists with its jīva and ajīva. - Aloka exists as empty space without them.

Thus, the question “Which came first, loka or aloka?” is like “Which came first, left side of a line or right side?” Both sides are part of one eternal entity (ākāśa); our question of “first” is misplaced.

You can see a basic outline of loka in Jain cosmology here

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4. How this answers all similar “chicken–egg” questions

Bhagavatī Sūtra uses this same framework again and again for questions like:

• “Who is the first killer, first sinner, first doer?”
• “Which was the first birth?”
• “Which was the first karma that made jīva fall?”
• “When did saṁsāra start?”

Common Jain replies:

1. At the level of dravya (substance):

- Jīva, ajīva, loka‑ākāśa, aloka‑ākāśa, dharma, adharma, kāla – all are eternal and beginningless.

1. At the level of paryāya (modes / changing states):

- Specific bodies, specific karmas, specific births and deaths do have beginnings and ends, but they form an infinite, beginningless chain.

So the pattern is:

• You can always point to a previous cause (this birth has a previous birth, this karma has a previous karma).
• But you can never reach a “first link” in time – the chain is anādi.

Therefore:

• “Chicken–egg” = Which is the first link?
• Jain answer (as in Bhagavatī Sūtra) = There is no first link; only an endless, law‑governed chain.

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5. Summary in one line

From the Jain and Bhagavatī Sūtra perspective:

• Just as there is no first chicken or first egg,
• there is no first jīva–ajīva interaction, no first loka–aloka moment, no first karma, no first saṁsāra –

everything real (dravya) is beginningless, and only its modes change in an endless chain governed by karma and natural law.