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THE SUMMARY
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individuality ragardless of the other. For instance, if both electric and magnetic poles are at rest, there is no action between them, neither attraction nor repulsion. In the language of science this would be expressed by saying: an electrostatic field does not influence a magnetostatic field and vice versa. The discussion of pages 105-106 ante will show that the scientists are still in doubt with regard to the true nature of the Field. They are making the mistake of associating meterial properties with this non-material properties with this non-material medium and hence the whole jumble.
In conclusion, it is worthy of notice that although all Indian philosophies have devoted very great pains to the theories of world evolution, none of them but the Jainas could think of
ese vital principles of motion and rest without which a stable world structure is impossible and incomplete.
ÄKĀSA OR THE SPACE
According to Jain philosophers the term akasa means the mathematician's pure space and not the primeval substance of the Hindus out of which the Creation was evolved. The chief funtion of space is to accommodate the infinite physical objects, living-beings, the media of motion and rest, and the time. The space is divided into main divisions : the lokākāśa, which is co-extensive with these objects and the a lokákāśa or anantakāša, which is pure space extending to infinity beyond lokakasa. In the Infinite Beyond there are no objects animate or inanimate. Not a tiny molecule of matter nor a stray soul would step beyond the limits of the loka. The system of objects is held together by the static and the dynamic principles, the aether and the Field and these principles are confined to lokākās'a. We have already explained in the last section why the functions of motion and rest cannot be associated with space. According to the views fo modern science the total amount of matter which exists is limited and the total extent of the universe is finite. The totality of space is so curved that a ray of light, after travelling in a direct line for an long enough time, would come back to its starting point. A ray of light would, according to a rough estimate, take about ten trillion years for the round trip in the totality of curvature, Einstein connects the curvature of space with the amount and distribution of matter in the universe. Space, if there be matter inside it, bends round until it coises up. The more matter there is, the
