Elusive Consciousness

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari, Surendrasingh Pokharana, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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perspective and new concepts are required to handle the modern problems of the society.
In view of these issues, it is observed that most of the development in science and technology and their economic exploitations have resulted in a large increase in the entropy at all levels starting from the human brain to the whole biosphere.
Hence General Systems Theory (GST) is used for better understanding of the whole problem because by its intrinsic nature, GST can give a better picture of the interconnectedness of various components of the Human-Earth-atmosphereuniverse system. It is finally a problem of order versus disorder (Pokharna, 1985, Pokharna 1991, Pokharna 1996 and Pokharna 2006, Pokharna 2010 and 2012) at all levels and so when we talk of development and evolution, we should talk about the development of the order and evolution of the order for complete understanding of the term development. These concepts will have significant impact on all the problems of the modern life. Hence the concept of "order" as defined in the case of General Systems Theory needs to be closely examined in view of irreversibility of the biological and human systems. Therefore it is proposed that the Jain concept of evolution of consciousness might be closely related with some kind of knowledge and order at different levels.
This may inspire the scientific community to take up the concept of consciousness seriously, because its evolution might directly lead even to new concepts of development. It is shown that spiritual processes mentioned in Jain philosophy could provide new direction for development of concepts of knowledge and evolution which may be accompanied by a reduction in entropy production in the brain as well as in the society and the atmosphere (Pokharna 2012).
It appears that it is necessary to explore the concept of consciousness for better handling of the current problems and its connection with knowledge. It is here that the concept of knowledge as enunciated in Indian philosophy in general and Jainism in particular needs to be considered. This paper emphasizes that scientific knowledge has limitations and there is knowledge beyond science, which may include knowledge of the consciousness also. The Jain concept of knowledge, with five different types, needs to be further explored in view of modern concepts of knowledge in computer science and the neurosciences.
There is another dimension of this problem dealing with development and evolution. Presently, the concept of development is governed by economics whereas Darwin principle is important for evolution. However, in Indian