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SUTRA 32.
spoken language. For instance, the portrait of a primitive man can be represented by the simple equation:
y=4 sin x + sin 5x,
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and the thoughtful intellectual profile demands an equation of over 100 terms, viz..
y=A, sin x+A, sin 3x+As sin 5x+...... A(2n-1) sin (2n-1)x+B, cos x+B, cos 3x+ Bs cos 5x+.. +B(2n-1) cos (2n-1)x.
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where n should be greater than 50.
Other additional equations could be given to express the eye, the lips and the wrinkles. 323
The question naturally arises, what is the necessity of employing such a language for the expression of natural laws. The answer is: Otherwise the same law 'reads quite differently when studied by different observers under different conditions or from different points of view. Now what is true of a particular law of Nature is also true of all statements in general. We have already discussed the statement: 'Strychnine is Poison from different aspects and seen that we arrive at results apparently contradictory.
The case of a stationary conductor charged with electricity situated on the surface of the earth has been dealt with on pate VIII of the Prologue. There we have seen that there is no magnetic field round the conductor from the point of view of a person situated on the earth but there is a magnetic field round the same conductor from the point of view of a celestial ovserver. To the direct question: Is there a magnetic field round the conductor or is there none? No answer can be given. How can the same body both give and not give a magnetic field at the same time? In the language of Jaina syādvāda it is indescribable (avaktavyam). According to Einstein, "We can only know the relative truth, the Absolute truth is known only to the Universal observer."
The age-old controversy whether the earth moves round a stationary sun or the sun moves round a stationary earth was beautifully decided by the theory of relativity. Both may be right or both may be wrong depending upon the viewpoint which we adopt. We have no means at our disposal to decide between the counter statements or to determine the real state of things. The only thing which we can say is that the motion
323. Quoted from F.M. Denton's 'Relativity and Commonsense'
