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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
A revolutionary scientific
route to the Jain path
By Kanti Mardia
Youth of today are looking for a meaning behind the Jain rituals and the writings because it is not easy to see the wood for the trees. This article reveals a revolutionary scientific route to the ancient Jain path. There is a vast literature on Jainism giving its scientific foundation but, obviously, it was written in the old languages, such as Prakrit, which are now obsolete. Further, there is no single text/scripture which gives all the key points. One of the most common scriptures is Tattvartha Sutra but it is a compendium so one has to search for appropriate commentary to comprehend the contents. In ancient times when there were no printed books in general the scriptures were passed on by verbal citation. Subsequently they were written on palm leaves, followed by antique papers written by hand. However, science and technology have moved far ahead in the twentieth century so anything in contemporary language is more relevant than literal translations of the scriptures, and the contents are accessible widely as on the web. Further it is important to see the wood from the trees. With this in mind and thinking of the young generation I wrote the book "The Scientific Foundations of Jainism" (1990), where four "Axioms" were postulated so that if you believe in those, then you can believe in the foundation of Jain thinking. Subsequently these four Axioms have been labelled aptly as Four Noble Truths of Jainism by some readers and reviewers.
The Four Noble Truths of Jainism contain both theory and applications and provide a road map to Jainness beyond "ism". Axiom 1/ Noble Truth1 is the key one which states that Truth 1: 'The soul exists in contamination with karmic matter and it longs to be purified'. jeeva iti.......karma-samyuktah (Panchaastikaaya Saara Verse .27)
This is the first step to Jainism but it is hidden behind our rituals and popular writing. This assumes the concept of the existence of soul, the interaction with foreign matter (namely, karmic matter) and its innate desire to be free from karmic matter. It all sounds very intellectual but now, with modern particle physics, we can understand these concepts. As we know, the elementary particles are also invisible but only known through their actions, namely, we can observe the effect of electrons through electricity and we can only see the effect of photons through the light. In the same way, karmic matter is supposed to be composed of karmons, which are all around us and are invisible. These karmons interact with soul to form the karmic matter and we can see their effects in our living ... from birth to death and beyond.
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