Cosmology Old and New

SR No.: 006547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 232
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 12 MB

Page 201

SUTRA 39.
169
solved a number of difficulties.
The akaraiva (non-spatiality) of time is admitted by Eddington when he says: “I shall use the phrase time's arrow to express this one way property of time which has no analogue in space. It is a singularly interesting property from a philosophical stand-point."357
The kalāņus represent the physical time analogous to the 'world-wide instants', as Eddington chooses to call them, existing in the four-dimensional world. 35* The spatial and temporal relations of which Eddington speaks further on are these:
Every cell of space in the bounded universe has on kālāņu situated in it (special relation) and the continuous changes effected by kälāņus in their surroundings give rise to temporal relations. 359
With regard to the infinity of time, Richard Hughes in his article on 'Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics' says: “It follows from this that the time-dimension cannot come round full circle as we imagine space to do. By going far enough into the future we shall never reach the past. And yet it is not necessary to imagine that time either had a beginning or must have an end." The same is the verdict of Einstein's Cylinder theory quoted on page 40. Eddington expresses the same view when he says: “The world is closed in its space dimensions like a sphere but it is open at both ends in the time dimension. There is a bending round by which East ultimately becomes West but no bending round by which Before ultimately becomes After. 360 The learned professor then adds “But the difficulty of an infinite past is appalling... We have been studying the running-down of the universe; if our views are right, somewhere between the beginning of time and the present day we must place the winding up of the universe... There is no doubt (about) a date at which either the entities of the universe were created in a state
357. The Nature of the Physical World. p. 69. 358. Ibid. p. 102,
359. Newton's conception of time was different from the present day conception. He regarded Time, Space and Matter as independent entities. According to his view time would continue to go on even if the whole universe contracted to a point. The Jaina view widely differs from this but agrecs completely with that of Einstein who regards time as a separate entity but inseparably mixed with space, so much so that time has been regarded as a dimension like the three dimensions of space.
360. The Nature of the Physical World, p. 83.