Page Text
________________
44
JAINISM, CHRISTIANITY & SCIENCE
seen men who had attained to it! Mahavira, the last Tirthamkara of Jainism, and many others of the most advanced saints were all gifted with this All-sufficing Divine Wisdom, and Mahavira was a senior contemporary of Buddha !
This was one of the things which could not be revealed openly to the masses in the Holy Land who were willing to believe that one spirit could be omniscient, namely their god, but not any others, which unscientific statement prevails in theological circles up to today.
It will pay us to understand that knowledge comes not to us from without; all that comes from outside is matter or motion, not knowledge. What is termed or .considered as knowledge has nothing of matter or motion in it; it is a different kind of thing altogether. If matter or motion were to compose knowledge they could only give us composite pictures, not unitary states of consciousness. And assuming even that a picture is formed somethere, say on some part of the surface of the brain, how is this picture perceived itself? It cannot perceive itself, and if the brain were to perceive it, it could not perceive colours, it could only perceive it by touch as a sensation of touch ; and then the perception will be confined to the surface actually covered by the picture-a very, very small portion of the brain. How would you account for the perception of big landscapes, whole railway trains, huge ocean liners, and so on? The best thing under the circumstances that modern Science can do is to overhaul its old notions, and to recognise once for all that knowledge is merely called forth, not manufactured, not composed,
| SR No. | 011064 |
| Book Title | Jainism Christianity and Science |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Champat Rai Jain |
| Publisher | The Indian Press Allahabad |
| Publication Year | 1930 |
| Total Pages | 219 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 8 MB |