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ધર્મ કથાનુયોગ : એક સમીક્ષાત્મક અધ્યયન
નથી. લોકની બહાર આ શક્તિનો-દ્રવ્યને અભાવ છે, જે ગતિમાં સહાયક છે. વૈજ્ઞાનિકોએ જેને “ઈથર’—ગતિતત્વ કહ્યું છે, એને જૈન સાહિત્યમાં ધર્મદ્રવ્ય કહ્યું છે.'
અહીં ગતિ એટલે એક સ્થાનથી બીજા સ્થાને જવાની ક્રિયા. ધર્મદ્રવ્ય આ પ્રકારની ક્રિયામાં સહાયક બને છે. જેમકે, માછલી પોતે તરે છે તે પણ એની આ ક્રિયા પાણી વગર થઈ શકતી નથી. પાણીની એને તરવામાં સહાયક લેવી પડે છે. જે તે તરવા ઈચ્છતી ન હોય તો પાણી એને ફરજ પાડતું નથી. એવી રીતે જીવ અને પુગલ જ્યારે ગતિ કરે છે, ત્યારે ધર્મ દ્રવ્ય સહાયક બને છે. “ઈથર’ આધુનિક ભૌતિકવિજ્ઞાનની એક મહત્વપૂર્ણ શેધ છે. ઈથર અંગે ભૌતિકવિજ્ઞાનવત્તા. ડે. એ. એસ.
એડિટને નેધ્યું છે કે, “આજે એ સ્વીકારી લેવામાં આવ્યું છે કે ઈથર ભોતિક દ્રવ્ય નથી, ભૌતિકની અપેક્ષા એ એની પ્રકૃતિ ભિન્ન છે. ભૂતમાં પ્રાપ્ત પિંડત્વ અને ઘનત્વ ગુણેને ઈથરમાં અભાવ હશે, પરંતુ પોતાના નવા અને નિશ્ચિયાત્મક vel .... 4221 zx Gillas 241012
4. (8) T1212444, 33/8 (14) 2791419 986 3. I am quite sure that you have heard of Ether before now, but please do noi con'une it with the
liquid Ether used by surgeons to render a patient unconscious for an operation. It vou should ask me just what the Ether is, that is, the Ether that conveys electromagnetic-waves, I would answer that I cannot rccurately describe 11. Neither can anyone else. The best that anyone could do would be to say that Fther is invisible body and that tbrough if electromagnetic-waves can he propagated.
But let us see from a practical standpoint the nature of the thing called "Ether. We are all quite familiar with the existence of solids, liquids and gases. Now si ppose that inside a glass-vessel there are ro solids, no liquids or gases : that all of these things have been removed including the air as well.
If I were to ask you to describe the condition that now exist within the glass-vessel, you would promptly reply that nothing exists within it. that a vacuum has been created. But I shall have to correct you, and explain that within this vessel there does exist 'Ether', nothing else.
So we may say that 'Ether' is a 'something' that is not a solid nor liqid, por gaseous, nor any thing else which can he observed by us physically. Therefore, we may say that an absolute 'vacuum' or a void does not exist anywhere. for we know that an absolute vacuum can not be created for Ether can not be removed.
We get our khowledge of Ether from experimen's : by observing results and deducing facts. For example, if within the glass-vessel, mentioned above, we place a bell and cause it to ring, no sound of any kind reaches our ears. Therefore, we deduce that in the absence of air, sound does not exist, and thus, that sound must be due to vibration in the air.
Now let us place a radio transmitter inside the enclosure that is void of air. We find that radio signals are sent out exactly the same as when the transmitier was exposed to the air. So we are right in deducing that electro-magnetic waves or Radio waves do not depend on air for their propagation that they are propagated through or by means of "something" which remained inside the glass enclosure after the air had been exhausted. This sone-thing has been named "Ether."
We believe that Ether exists throughout all spac: of the universe, in the most remote region of the stars, and at the same time within the earth, and in the seemingly impossible small space which exists between the atoms of all matter. That is to say, Ether is everywhere; and that electromagnetic wave been can be propagated everywhere.
-Hollywood, R. and T. : Instruction Lesson No 2. "What is Ether?' 3. This does not mean that the Etber is abolished. We need an Ether........... in the last century
it was widely believed that Ether was a kind of matter having properties such as muss, rigidity, motion like ordinary matter. It would be difficult to say when this view died out..... Now-a-day's it is agreed that Ether is not a kind of matter, being non-material its properties (quite unique) characters such as mass and rigidity which we meet within matter will naturally be absent in Ether but the Ether will have new and definite characters of its own.....noo-material ocean of Ether.
-The Nature of the Physical World, P. 31.
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