Epitome of Jainism

SR No.: 006737
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: K B Jindal
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

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An Epitome of Jainism time the fullness and joy of life, but their life is short. Our mental picture of the universe is constantly undergoing modification and change. Science is ever giving it a new shape. Science is not a structure in which only the ornamental details of secondary importance are changing. Such a picture of it would be not only sad and dreary, but quite wrong. The joys of creative work and the joys of scientific knowledge and of an appreciation of scientific principles and laws lie in their eternal youth and change. Change is progress, the road upwards leading through error and mistake. We change or modify theories in order to bring within their ambit an ever wider range of facts and to obtain an ever greater degree of agreement with observation”.
The reader may well note the great contrast between the never changing laws of Nature enunciated by the Jain Tîrthamkaras and the ever changing theories of modern science. In view of this fact, it is never wise to reject what at present seems to be contradictory against the theories of science. Science is ever sounding the bell : “We are beginning to appreciate better, and more throughly, how great is the range of our ignorance".
"Truth is what the scientist aims at. He finds nothing at rest, nothing enduring, in the universe. Not everything is knowable, still less is predictable. But the mind of man is capable of grasping and understanding at least a part of Creation."*
Then there is another important feature introduced in Science by the great Theory of Relativity. Einstein has very beautifully differentiated between 'true' and 'really true'. To quote his own words
"Is it really true that a moving rod becomes shortened in the direction of its motion ? It is not altogether easy to give a plain answer. I think we often draw a distinction between what is true and what is really true. A statement which does not profess to deal with anything'except appearances may be true t; a statement which is not only true but deals with the realities beneath the appearances is really true.”
According to Einstein, we can know the truth, but not the real truth or absolute truth. The following illustration taken from the domain of physics will make the point clear:
Imagine a stationary conductor charged with electricity placed anywhere upon the surface of the earth. There exists an electric field round a charged conductor. In other words, it means that if any other conductor charged with electricity is brought in the neighbourhood of the former, the latter will be attracted or repelled depending upon whether it is charged with the opposite kind of electricity or of the same kind. It is well to bear in mind that there is no magnetic field round a stationary electric charge, i.e. a
* The Restless Universe by Max Born, Page 278.
† In the terminology of Jaina Scriptures 'True' refers to aTETT HY (Vyavahâr Satya) and 'Really True' refers to FREUTCHI HIT (Niśchayâtmak Satya).
There are two kinds of electric charges, called the positive and the negative,