Compendium of Jainism

Author(s): T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar

Page 95

THE UNIVERSE
83
Hamburg University from his lecture delivered at Delhi on Jan. 30, 1928: "He who has a thorough knowledge of the structure of the world cannot but admire the inward logic and harmony of Jaina ideas. Hand in hand with the refined cosmographical ideas goes a high standard of astronomy and mathematics". A history of Indian astronomy is not conceivable without the famous "Surya Prajñapti”. 14
Isaac Asimov, while dealing with the general shape of the earth, has observed : “All men, before the time of the Greeks, made the assumption that the earth was flat, as indeed it appears to be, barring the irregularities of the mountains and valleys. If any Greek thought otherwise, his name has not come down to us and the record of his thinking has not survived. He seems to think that the assumption of a flat, however much it might seem to be commonsensical, involved one in philosopbic difficulties of the most serious sort."15
Scientific investigations are changing our knowledge and man may never succeed in comprehending fully the reality of nature. New theories are being propounded now and then and nobody knows when the great questions of metaphysics would be solved finally.
In brief, it would be found that Jainism has a positive view of the Universe. It recognises life and the five substances categorised under Ajīva are real and existing. Every substance maintains its reality, though it is capable of modifications and decay. The substance persists to exist inspite of change. Umāsvāmi has indicated in unmistakable terms that although the six substances possess the common substances of sat, sat is characterised by utpāda (birth), vyaya (going out of existence) and dhrauvya (permanence). Permanence means indestructibility of the substance. Though Jacobi first criticised the Jaina tenets as having no central idea, he later revised his view. “... I have Bow learned to look at Jaina philosophy in a different light. It has, I think, a metaphysical basis of its own, which secured