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Syntropy 2013 (2): 243-279
ISSN 1825-7968
principle of evolution, developed in the west is based on the concept of natural selection (now genetic based mutations etc.) and is expressed in the form of survival of the fittest". This is totally opposite of the Jain principle of "Live and Let Live". These two opposite thoughts can be reconciled through one argument. It is this, that in the Jain system, the emphasis is on recognizing the underlying identity among all living beings (like a unified field theory) whereas in the case of Darwin's principle of "survival of the fittest" can be traced to an emphasis on the differences among the living beings.
As concept of development is closely related with the concept of evolution present in a society and the goals of the society. Hence the concept of consumerism developed in the western world but in the Indian system, there is more emphasis on spiritual development which automatically reduces consumption of resources.
18. Conclusions
This paper attempts to explore the limitations of scientific methodologies found so successful to study physical systems and infer that are not adequate to understand biological and human systems. Hence a concept of General Systems Theory (GST) is required to develop a unified formalism which includes both physical and biological systems like social systems and human systems. Through this type of approach, even science and religion can be reconciled. It is mentioned that the concept of information and knowledge has to be also enlarged by taking the concept of knowledge through consciousness into account. We have to realize that all scientific knowledge is just a small set of knowledge structured in the consciousness. In particular it is shown that Jain's concept of knowledge through consciousness (soul) can be very useful to have an enlarged concept of knowledge, which can include extra sensory perception (ESP) also. It is shown that the Jain concept of evolution in which a soul become more and more pure and its knowledge contents increases, so it becomes more and more orderly. Hence it is argued that such processes of spiritual evolution may be accompanied by a decrease in rate of entropy production at different levels. Some examples of order are given like those of Swamy Vivekanand to illustrate the meaning of this order. Two more examples from Jainism are given which show extraordinary states of mind in highly ordered states of satavdhanies. In another example, it is shown that ancient Jain Aacharyas might have even tried to estimate the sizes of the smallest particles of matter like atoms and nuclei through highly advanced telepathy. It shows the existence of telepathy of very high order.
It is also mentioned that the Jain principle of "Live and Let Live” should be compared with the Darwin's principle of evolution described by "Survival of the fittest”. The difference between the two will have a totally different impact on the concept of development and the society in general and direction of evolution in particular. The Jain concept of evolution is
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