International Jain Conference 1985 3rd Conference

Author(s): Satish Jain, Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Ahimsa International

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on the basis of the famous English astronomer Colebrooke. According to him, Rajju is the distance travelled by a Deva in six months at the rate of 20,57,152 yojanasa per Nimesha. Taking the value of Yojana as 2000 x 100/11 miles and six months as 1,55,52,000 seconds or 1,55,52,000 x 4 Nimesas, the distance travelled by the Deva is 2.23 x 1018 miles. Einstein has assumed the universe as spherical and calculated its volume as 1037 x 1063 cubic miles. If we equate it to the volume of the universe given in cubic Rajjus by Jain Thinkers, i, e. 343 cubic Rajjus, we obtain a Rajju equal to 1.45 x 1021 miles. Finally, therefore, we arrive at the following space unit distances :
1 Yojana = 100/11 miles 1 Mahayojan = 2000 Yojanas=2000 x 100/11 miles 1 Rajju = 1.45 x 1021 miles
(2) Living Substance, Jiva or Soul :-The soul is the reality that possesses the faculty of knowing and perceiving, in which the sensations of pain and pleasure inhere and through which the volition functions. Modern experimental psycology has already discovered the electrical counterpart of the soul called the Taijas Sharira. This soul has the potency of changing its size by contraction and expansion. It can occupy the smallest possible body of a baeteriophage or the biggest body of a whale fish. Since a body grows from a microscopical size in the mother's womb to its full proportions and contracts again at the end of its earthly career, to reincarnate into a new seed, it follows that the size of the soul cannot remain fixed. Modern science identifies life with protoplasm or the living cell and it is well known that it possesses a remarkable property of contraction under external stimulii. The theory of transmigration of soul is an extraordinary conception also supported by Hindu and Budhist philosophies. According to Jain view, all actions of embodied living beings, whether mental or physical, are followed by influx of fine molecules of energy towards the soul-the former constitutes a fine material body around the soul. It is technically called Karmana Sarira. To use the modern language, the activities of mind and matter constitute a super radio with the quantillions of living cells sending out their individual waves to be tuned in by quantillions of receiving sets in the brain. Influx of these waves is the influx of subtle karmic matter, which we can call the fourth state of matter, the other three being solid, liquid and gaseous states. Activity of a good kind attracts meritorious while activity of a bad kind attracts the opposite kind of karmic matter. The karmic body is responsible for dragging the soul from one physical body to another, and it keeps the soul bound to the confines of the universe owing to the gravitational forces operating on all sides. When karmic matter is shed off the soul by following the path of liberation, being the lightest substance, the latter rises to the top of the universe and rests there as pure "Effulgence Divine”. It cannot travel further on owing to the absence of the medium of motion called the luminiferous Aether by the scientists.
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