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PREFACE
The present Sataka (V) starts with the measurement of days and nights, which is the subject matter of astronomy. The minimum length of day or night is 12 muhūrtas (= 9 hours, 36 minutes) and the maximum is 18 muhūrtas (= 14 hours, 24 minutes). This measurement is with reference to some particular parts of the hemisphere of earth. Here, it is described in the context of Bhāratavarşa only (which is the southernmost continent of the Jambu Island). The solar system is mobile in the regions inhabited by humans, while it is immobile beyond those regions where there is no alternate occurence of day and night-there, the days are always days and nights nights.
In the Vaiseșika Philosophy, the theory of infinite beginningless cycles of creation and dissolution is accepted.
Creation is followed by dissolution which, in its turn, is followed by creation. At the time of creation, the four types of material atoms which were in the state of disintegration at the time of dissolution are again integrated. The souls, the atoms, time, directions and space are eternal entities that continue to exist even at the time of dissolution. Both creation and dissolution are not accepted in Jainism. The descending and ascending time-wheel have partial similarity with the concepts of creation and dissolution. The sixth period (spoke) of the descending time-wheel is very much like the state of dissolution. Evolution starts from the 2nd period (spoke) of the ascending time-wheel. This order of evolving and devolving cycles is called time-wheel with eternal recurrence. This time-wheel obtains only in the five continents, named Bharata and five, named Airāvat.
The Jain philosophy upholds the doctrine of transformation with continuity (eternality with change). The substance (Being) never loses its existence, and in this sense, it is eternal. The substance, however, is subject to constant transformation (Becoming), and in this sense, the Jainism upholds the aspect of transformation. Being and Becoming cannot be separated. This is the essence of the doctrine of 'eternality with transformation'.? The essence of the doctrine of transformation is explained by the phrase "kimśarīratva" (identification of the possessor of the body). For instance, a grain of rice which has the body of vegetation-souls is transformed, on being cooked, into the body of 'fire souls'. In its preceding mode, it was a vegetation-soul, where as in its succeeding mode, it becomes fire-soul. The preceding mode does not continue in the succeeding mode. The result of transformation is the origination of a new mode. To take another example, the iron is the body of an earth-soul and the bone is the body of a soul of a mobile being. But when heated, they are transformed into the body of fire-souls.
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