Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 32

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INTRODUCTION
anism that makes it do so. Its knowledge and activity are purely instinctive. But the mouse cannot be born with knowledge of the exact position of its burrow and the objects around it. It acquires this knowledge through the agency of its senses, particularly its eyes and nose, and stores it in its brain. The process of acquiring knowledge in this way, through the agency of the nervous system, is known as learning.
The Dutch biologist Hugo de Vries (1848-1935) showed that chance occurrences (induced by rediation or other means) can produce marked changes in the genetic make up of an individual.
Darwin's theory of natural selection (survival of the fittest) could account for small changes within species, but mutations were needed to explain how the large changes leading to the establishment of new groups of animals could occur So in the 1930's, the modern theory of evolution (often called the Synthetic Theory) was proposed. This theory is based upon the theory of natural selection, but includes the concepts of mutation and genetic inheritance.
It is interesting to note in this connection that an evil act committed in this life by a person, according to Manu, produces its result either in this very life or in the life of the progeny, namely, the sons and the grandsons; but it is never unproductive.1 This observation of Manu is in essential agreement with the doctrine of genes, which asserts that progeny inherits the behavioural pattern of the parents.
Each person's life-cycle is determined, according to the majority of Indian thinkers, by the cumulative potencies of karman performed in the previous birth. The instinctive behaviour of the living being also owes its origin to the past life. It is believed that the whole behavioural mechanism is in accordance with the species in which a soul takes birth Suppose a soul is born as a cat. In this case the predispositions and instincts stored in the past by that soul in its previous life of a cat come up and start functioning and the process continues till the end of that life. The intervening temporal or spatial gap between the past life and the present one is no obstacle, because the past experiences remain 1 Manusmrti, IV. 173:
yadi nätmani putreşu na cet putreşu naptṛşu / na tv eva tu kṛto'dharmaḥ kartur bhavati nişphalaḥ //
2 Cf. YBh, IV. 8: yajjātīyasya karmano yo vipākas tasyānuguņā yā vāsanāḥ karmavipakam anuserate tāsām evābhivyaktiḥ. na hi daivam karma vipacyamānam näraka-tiryam-manuṣya-vāsanābhivyakti-nimittam sambhavati, kintu daivānuguņā eväsya vāsana vyajyante.