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MODERN PHYSICS AND JAIN DARSHAN
By Prof. Narendra Bhandari
We examine here the question whether any common ground exists between Modern physics and religion, particularly the Jain Darshan. The question has arisen because some religious leaders as well as proponents of modern physics think that they belong to different spheres of activity, one dealing with soul and spirituality (which are not physical entities) and the other with matter and the physical world. The laws that govern these two are exclusive to their domain and hence it is futile to look for any overlaps between them. The religion has declared one as vidya and the other as avidya and there the partition has started. However if we consider that no religion can ignore or wish away the ground truth on which the physical universe operates, (whether some call it an illusion a la Shankara, or not), they must not only incorporate each other but be based on each other. I personally believe that any religion must encompass various aspects of physical reality as we experience in our daily life. In fact, Darshan and physics must be complementary and have similarity of concepts and postulates of these two complementary aspects of our existence i.e. Physics and spirituality must coexist. At the least, they cannot be contradictory and in reality they should derive strength from each other.
Darshan and
physics
must be complementary
and have similarity of concepts and
Physics believes in laws of nature but not in God. On the other hand religion believes in God as well as laws. Therefore laws provide a common ground where physics and religion may overlap. Foundations of Physics are based on certain laws, theories and principles, which are derived from observations and deductions. As examples we may cite Newton's Law of Gravitation, or Kepler's laws of planetary motion, Quantum theory or the Big Bang theory and principles of conservation of physical entities or attributes. In contrast, religions are based on faith, philosophical deductions and revelations. The physical laws are deduced from observations or from theoretical deductions and although the laws of physics control the physical world in a fundamental way, they are not fundamental concepts of physics. Take for example the Law of gravitation. It says that attraction between two bodies depends on their mass and varies inversely as the square of the distance between them. This affects all the physical universe but is a consequence of the principle of gravitational attraction. This immediately leads us to even more fundamental question of the origin of Mass. We may recall here Mach's principle, which deals with the concept of origin of inertial mass. Broadly speaking Mach's principle states that the inertial mass of a body is solely due to interaction of other bodies in the universe. Heller (1975) mentions it in the following way" The local inertial frames are entirely determined by the distribution and motion of all matter present in the universe" and Einstein formulated it as " the entire inertia of a point mass is the effect of the presence of all other masses, deriv
these two complementary aspects of our existence i.e. Physics and spirituality must coexist
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