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COSMOLOGY: OLD AND NEW
of high organisation or pre-existing entities were endowed with that organisation which have been squandering ever since." This is all true: the running-down of the universe is called by Jainas the avasarpiņi Kala (unwinding of the universe at a slow rate comparable to the pace of a snake) and the gradual rewinding is called the utsarpiņi käla at the end of which the things are in a state of high organisation. These processes are going on from an infinite past into an infinite future, and consequently there should be no difficulty in imagining infinity of time.
However the reality of time is admitted on all hands. Eddington remarks that "Time is more typical of physical reality than matter."}! Says Mr. Henshaw Ward : "These four elements (Matter, Space, Time and Motion) are all separate in our minds; we cannot imagine that one of them could depend on another or be converted into another."362 Prof. N. R. Sen, D.Sc. (Cal.), Ph.D. (Berlin), says in the same article quoted before; “Time, in classical mechanics, is regarded as a continuously flowing entity absolute in nature. This idea of time is involved in all mathematical analysis and is perfectly self-consistent. But what about the physical time which we measure in out laboratories? A little consideration would show that this cannot be absolute but depends on the condition of the observer."36.
With regard to the smallest unit of physical time it may be mentioned that Jain writers have given it the name samara" which is defined as follows:
दोण्हमणूणमदिक्कमकालपमाणं हवे सो हु।। .
(The time taken by one paramaņu (the electron or the positron) in traversing the distance between two of them placed side bl side in space is called the samara i.e. the time taken by a paramaņu in going from one space-point to another with a slow speed.)
The biggest unit of time is the Mahakalpa made up of two
361. Ibid. p. 275. 362. Quoted from Exploring the Universe.
363. See the Proceedings of Physics Seminar, University of Allahabad, July 1925, Article on Relativity:
364. Unit of pudgala is parmaņu, unit of space is Prades a or the space-point and so the ultimiate unit of time is the samaya.
365. Gommaja-sara, (Jivakanda) 573.
