Cosmology Old and New

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

Page 83

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SÜTRA 2. and is substratum of qualities and modifications is called the dravia.)
Three points have been stressed in this gatha. Dravya is 'sar, substantiality or existence: it has the quality of permanence through birth and death and lastly it is the basis in which attributes rest and modifications take place. It should be noted, however, that birth does not mean 'coming into being out of nothing; it means the production or development of a new form. Death does not mean the complete annihilation of the substance but simply the death of the previous form. This dialectical triad of birth, death and permanence is not only recognized by the scientists like Darwin and Spencer but by the great French philosopher, Bergson, who raised it to an important philosophical principle
Lastly the qualities or attributes in order to be real must have an objective basis and such a basis is a dravia.
Now we give below the evidence of present-day science on the subject of permanence of substances through birth and death. The sphere of 'Science is the pudgala dravra (i.e., matter and energy) only since soul and other amurta dravyas are not amenable to measurement and Science means 'measurement'. Consequently laws have been investigated and formulated concerning matter and energy only. The principle of conservation of matter and the principle of conservation of energ! are the two fundamental laws of physics.
"This theorem (the law of conservation or persistence of energy) is usually considered to be the flower of the mechanical world, the highest and most general theorem of natural science, to which the thought of many centuries has led.”
Referring to this doctrine Prof. A.N. Whitehead, D.Sc., FR.S., writes “The doctrine of energy has to do with the notion of quantitative permanence underlying change."!2+
Mark the coincidence of the words 'permanence underlying change', the words which we have oft used in the translation of the previous gathas. It means nothing but utpada, viaja, dhrouvya.
Writing under the heading “Energy, like matter, is indestruc
122. Vide. Commentary by Prof. A. Chakravarti on Pari castikara-sura. gatha, 10
123. Imorgunic & Theoretical Chemistry. by J.W. Mellor, Vol. I, p. 269. 124. Science and The Modern World, p. 126.