Cosmology Old and New

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

Page 72

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COSMOLOGY : OLD AND NEW
the following view of Professor Einstein
“Einstein himself asserts that the universe consisting of large and small masses hanging apparently in infinite space is not in fact infinite. One suggestion from his theory is that the universe of four dimensions is finite in spatial directions and infinite in the direction of time. It is like a cylinder whose surface is bounded in some direction, viz., across the lines which generate the cylinder. This finite dimension corresponds to the three spacial dimensions of our world of perception. But the cylinder is also infinite in two other directions, so is also our universe which is infinite in the dimension of time running from the infinite pası into the infinite future"l08
There can be no clearer pronouncement than this about the finiteness of the loka i.e., universe and its eternity, thus estab lishing the Jaina viewpoint beyond the shadow of a doubt. It should be noted, however, that while Jaina philosophy regards only a part of loka as finite and an infinite space beyond, the Einsteinian view regards the whole loka as finite with nothing beyond it. For, says Eddington "In any case the physicist does not conceive of space as void"109. Let us hope that this little difference will disappear as science advances for, as again in the words of Eddington, as "it is inconceivable that there was once a moment with no moment preceding it,"l10 so it is inconceivable that there should be no space beyond a certain space.
PUDGALA
The last substance mentioned in the sūtra is pudgala which falls within the category of non-living substances. On page 1 we have translated word as 'matter and energy' and it is exactly in this sense that the term has been used by the Jaina writers. At this stage we shall discuss only one phase of pudgala dravya. The word Pudgala. has the following derivation:
108. Vide Dr. Sen's article on 'Relativity' published in the Proceedings of the Physics Seminar, Allahabad University, July 1925.
109. The nature of The Physical World, p.137. 110. Ibid.