Cosmology Old and New

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

Page 71

SUTRA 1 (Akasa)
39
sions of space are determined by the amount of matter it contains. Space, if there be matter inside, bends round unti closes up. The more matter there is, the smaller space there must be and 'space could only be of literally infinite extent if it contained no matter at all."105 So matter is responsible for the curvature of space dimensions. So in Einstein's space containing matter, if one goes right on in one direction one does not get to infinity but gets back to his starting-point again. *Closed space differs from an open infinite in the same way that the surface of a sphere differs from the infinite plane'. We say that the surlace of a sphere is (!) a curved surface and (2) a closed surface enclosing a three-dimensional volume. Similarly we can say that our three-dimensional space is (1) a curved space and (2) a closed space, enclosing a four-dimensional '06 continuum. In Einstein's world the time dimension is uncurved und so may extend to infinity. It is what is called Einstein's cylindrical world."
The last words which we have italicised are worthy of notice. In plain simple words they mean that the universe extends in the direction of time from an infinite past to an infinite future. To be more explicit, there was never a beginning of the universe nor will it ever come to an end. "This fact is the fundamental substratum of Jaina philosophy. It regards the universe with its contents as eternal and uncreated :
जीवा पग्गलकाया धम्माधम्मा तहेव आयासं। अत्थित्तम्हि य णियदा अणण्णमइया अणुमहता ।। 107
(Souls, matter, the media of rest and motion and finally space, these are the entities which are eternal, uncreated and of immense magnitudes.)
What greater confirmation we require for the truths enunciated by the Jaina Acaryas? The Cylinder Theory of the Universe is explained in more clear terms by Professor N.R. Sen, D.Sc. (the famous work on the theory of relativity). He quotes
105. Mark the very interesting, at the same time, strange argument against the non-infinity of space.
106. Einstein's theory regards the universe as a four-dimensional spaceume continuumr. the three directions of space being combined with the fourth dimension of time. A brick with its length, breadth and thickness must grow in the direction of time in order to be a brick. A brick existing lor no time is absurd.
107. Pun (ustik uya. gāzhā 4.