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COSMOLOGY : OLD AND NEW
necessary medium for motion.
In recent years the scientists are trying to explain the processes of life viz., growth and reproduction in terms of special properties of various kinds of proteins and the two nucleic acids DNA and RNA. Although the artificial synthesis of a biologically active living cell, which automatically grows by multiplication has been reported, it has not been possible so far to correlate the proteins, DNA and RNA with functions of memory, thought, reason, logic, intuition, decision and freewill. In other words, consciousness could not be explained on the basis of physics and chemistry and hence the existence of soul remains unchallanged.
existence of soul and its transmigration has been amply corroborated by the recent researches in para-psychology.
THE MEDIA OF MOTION AND REST
The Jaina philosophers recognized in the world life, matter and space but these were not enough. There could be no stable world if there were nothing to prevent the souls and atoms from flying about and being scattered throughout the infinite space. This led to the hypothesis of a medium of rest, the Field through which the binding forces operate. But if there were the field alone there could be no motion at all in things and bodies. There would be an eternal paralysis of Reality. To remove this difficulty another medium of motion had to be postulated. But the trouble is not yet over. If the two media exist within a spatial limit one guaranteeing motion and the other rest, then the things in motion must be in motion for ever and things at rest must be at rest for ever. But our experience is not of that kind, and therefore it is assumed that the two media are inactive and neutral in themselves, yet indispensable to the composition of the world. They are nonmaterial, non-atomic, and continuous media pervading every iota of the universe, although for purposes of practical
nce they are regarded as made up of space-points. But they possess the characteristic properties of a Reality, viz., they undergo a cycle of changes, old forms gradually disappearing, new forms appearing and at the end of the cycle the original pattern is again there. In fact a stationary wavemotion, explained in pages 77-78 of the text, is constantly taking place in these invisible media, as if the heart of the whole universe were throbbing in tune with the Almighty. As every
