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SÜTRA 1 (Akāsa)
related to things material and spiritual. These two mysterious physical principles are all-pervading and co-extensive with the world space. Their existence cannot be inferred from their difference of locality. There is no such difference. But yet they have fundamentally different functions and on account of these differences they are really diverse. In short they are in one predesa (unit of space) but different as vastus, i.e., they have a unity of locality with diversity of function and nature.
This functional difference is emphasised by the author only because the three dravyas are amurta. There is no other way of differentiating them unlike physical objects which can be distinguished by sense qualities and unlike jivas which can be differentiated by conscious qualities. Dharma and adharma have to be determined only by their function in the economy of the physical world.
37
[Quotation ends here.]
Now compare the purport of these beautiful gathas with the proclamations of modern science. Just as the Jaina thinkers have divided space into lokākāśa, i.e., a finite universe and an infinite void beyond, so is the verdict of the modern mathematician.
"Strangely enough the mathematicians reckon that the total amount of matter which exists is limited, and that the total extent of the universe is finite. They do not conceive that there is a limit beyond which no space exists but that the totality of space is so 'curved' that a ray of light, after travelling in a direct line for a long enough time, would come back to its starting-point. They have even made a preliminary estimate of the time a ray of light would require for the round trip in the totality of curvature-not less than ten trillion, i.e., 10000000000000000000 years. And such a space is very cosy quarters compared with infinity. A mathematician feels positively cramped in it.
"100
Again the same author writes:
"Think of the most remote and abstract of all the theorems of 'Relativity' that the universe is finite. This is quite inconceivable; no astronomer can secure any mental picture of a jumpingoff boundary beyond which there is no space... When a computation implies that space is 'finite' the mathematician cannot unmake his brain and visualize finite space. He does not even try
100. Exploring the Universe by H. Ward. p. 16.
