Cosmology Old and New

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

Page 89

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SUTRA 4. Hundreds of experiments were performed in America and elsewhere to correlate memory with proteins on the one hand, and with DNA on the other but no definite conclusion was arrived at.135
So far no scheme has been proposed which could explain the relation of protiens and the DNA with thought, reason, logic, intuition, decision and free-will. In other words, consciousness could not be explained on the basis of physics and chemistry and hence the existence of soul remains unchallenged.
The subject of existence of soul and its transmigration has widely been studied by scientists, and para-psychologists in India and abroad. An American scientist, Stevenson has systematically studied this problem and published valuable literature on it. Recently the Editor of the 'Daily Express', London has published about one thousand verified authentic cases of persons who have given an account of their previous lives. '16
This leaves no doubt as to the soul being a separate substance as postulated by Jaina thinkers.
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SUTRA 4. नित्यावस्थितान्यरूपाणि ॥४॥
NITYĀVASTHITĀNYARŪPĀŅI [4] (aufaifa, oprati, oftare, seafor facutaffel 690T) 137
(The six substances jiva, ajiva, dharma, adharma, ākāśa and kāla are permanent in their nature, fixed in number as the sole constituents of the universe and (with the exception of pudgala dravya) are all without form, i.e., they are devoid of the characteristics of matter, viz., touch, taste, smell and colour).
The great Ācārya Kundakunda Swami has expressed the
135. Annual Review of Biochemistry. 1969. 136. Read Dharmayuga, 25th Nov. 1973.
137. Dharma. adharma, akasa and pudgala are embodied in sutra 1; kala or time in Sutra 39, jiva in Sutra 3; and the term dravyani is taken from Sutra 2.