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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
that can bring harmony and peace in national life and international relationship. All over the world, most of the men and women including their leaders go to temples, churches and mosques, as enjoined by their respective faiths, hear sermons on the blessedness of the merciful. What is therefore needed today is practice of what is heard or read with faith and devotion.9
The age we live in has been called the atomic age. New sources of energy are being tapped in various ways, but instead of thinking of them in terms of service and betterment of mankind, we have used them for manufacture of destructive weapons. It is not that the existence of the stom was unknown in the past. The term anu, the Sanskrit equivalent of 'ator' is found in the Upanishads, but the atom theory is foreign to Vedanta. Amongst the remaining schools of thought, the Jaina form of it is probably the earliest says, Prof. Hiriyanna. The atoms according to it are of the same kind, but they can give rise to an infinite variety of things so that matter is conceived here as of quite an indefinite nature. Pudgala has, as we know, certain inalienable features; but within the limits imposed by them it can become anything through qualitative differentiation. The transmutation of the elements is quite possible in this view and is not a mere dream of the alchemist. 10 Dr. Hermann Jacobi has subscribed to the view that the Jainas are the earliest to declare matter to be atomical. The atoms according to the Jainas are indefinite as regards quality; they may be in a gross (bådara) or subtle (sūkṣma) state; in the former they occupy one point of space (pradeśa) cach; in the latter an infinite number of them may be simultaneously present in the same point; by the combination of gross atoms all things in the world are produced except the souls (Jiva) and the substances, ākāśa, dharma and adharma. 11
I have made a reference to the atomic theory only to show that the Jaina thinkers were aware of the most modern theory; but they do not seem to have made use of it for any purpose, as the human needs were then very modest and its destructive use was unthinkable in that their philosophy was only constructive without the slightest tinge of himsā or harm to any body.
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