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COSMOLOGY : OLD AND NEW
negative the idea of a void beyond finite universe, the whole space was taken to constitute the finite universe.
The Jaina concept is more comprehensive because the stability of the universe is maintained by saying that there are no media of motion and rest beyond a certain limit and consequently matter or energy can never go out of it, i.e., the total energy of the universe will ever remain constant. Further, since Jainism regards space as a reality, there is no void beyond loka but only one substance, ---pure space and nothing else. All the difficulties are thus ingeniously overcome.
Dr. Phylip Norrison of Massachussetts Institute of Technology (USA) recently declared "Astronomers know far too little to make a choice among theories of the universe and no theory is adequate at the moment." Still the astronomers of the world are divided into two groups on the question of the origin of the universe. One group believes in the Big Bang theory and the other group in the continuous Creation theory, also known as Steady State theory. According to the Big Bang theory some ten billion years ago, the universe began explosively as a fireball of matter and radiation expanding from almost a point (not out of nothingness) the Primeval Egg and is still expanding.
The Steady State theory was first advanced by British Scientists Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold in 1948. Later, British Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle joined hands with this group to become one of the great advocates of Steady State Cosmology. According to this theory the universe was not created at any instant of time but the universe exhibits the same large scale appearance from eternity to eternity.
This is in perfect agreement with the Jaina view.
SUTRA 14. एकप्रदेशादिषु भाज्यः पुद्गलानाम् ॥१४॥ EKAPRADEŠĀDISU BHĀJYAH PUDGALĀNĀM [14]
(लोकाकाशे एकप्रदेशादिषु भाज्य एकप्रदेशसंख्येयासंख्येयानन्तप्रदेशाना TEUTATHME: 1)
