Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 63

SŪTRA 1 (Adharma) the medium of motion, they are constantly feeling the necessity of it. They do require a medium for the propagation or gravitation. Hence wrote Henshaw Ward : “We cannot conceive how a force can act at a distance without any medium through which to act or how the force can act instantaneously or what could propogate it" Or in the words of Dr. N. R. Sen "How this mechanism of action at the distance operates, the theory (Newton's theory of gravitation) is silent about the point."
It is the greatest triumph of the Jaina theory of adharma dravya that science had to postulate the existence of an invisible force of gravitation to account for the stability of the Universe, and the Einstein's modification of the law of gravitation had entirely divested the latter of its active character. Gravitation is now regarded as an auxiliary cause and not an active puller, so that its character is now brought in exact conformity with the Jaina view
स्थितिपरिणामिनां जीव-पुद्गलानां स्थित्युपग्रहे कर्तव्ये अधर्मास्तिCret: 182
(The principle which guarantees the permanence of world structure is calld adharma). And further
नित्योऽमूर्तः क्रियाहीनश्छायेव पथिकांगिनाम्। 83
the field. It needed great scientific imagination to realize that it is not the charges nor the particles but the field in the space between the charges and the particles which is essential for the description of physical phenomena." This field' is in fact the medium through which the binding forces of gravitation and electromagnetism operate and keep the microscopic as well as macroscopic world together.
Every piece of matter is a conglomeration of atoms and every atom is a compound of protons and electrons. Since the masses of electrons and protons are extremely small the gravitational attraction between them is ncgligible. It is the forces of electromagnetism which keep the two together and keep the electrons revolving round the nucleus. So in the case of microscopic bodies like the atoms the forces of electromagnetism are operative whereas in the case of heavenly bodies it is the force of gravitation which predominates and maintains the cosmic unity.
After a hard labour extending over 22 years Einstein come to the conclusion that the forces of gravitation and electromagnetism can be represented by the same set of equations. In other words they are fundanientally the same.
82 Sarvarihasiddhi on Sutra 5.17. 83. Vardhamanapurana, 16.30.