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ਵੀ ਤੇ ਵੀ
ਵੀ
ਵੀ ਵੀ ਓ ਵੀ ਓ ਵੀ
ਵੀ ਤਾਂ ਵੀ
ਵੀ ਹੈ ਵੀ ਵੀ
JAINA CONVENTION 2017
Secondly, Jainism, like other Indic traditions, affirms a vast age for the universe. One model of the universe from modern physics suggests a cyclical pattern, in which the 'Big Bang' is followed, after many billions of years, by a 'Big Crunch,' in which gravity causes the expanding universe to collapse back into a singularity, which will again explode in another 'Big Bang,' giving rise to another cosmic cycle, and so on, and so on: a process with no beginning and no end. While this is only one theoretical model, it is one that is quite consistent with a Jain picture of the universe going through cycles of expansion and decline.
Thirdly, and probably most dramatically of all, Jainism has affirmed, thousands of years before the invention of the microscope, the existence of tiny living beings pervading the physical environment. It is now a commonplace understanding, based on modern science, that the air and the water, as well as our own bodies, are filled with microorganisms.
The ethos that has arisen alongside the Jain view of life as pervading the physical universe is also one which can be commended from a contemporary scientific perspective. Jain ethics emphasizes living a simple life and doing as little harm as possible to other living beings. This, in fact, is the meaning of ahimsa, which is the central ethical precept of Jainism: not even to wish to harm any living being, or nonviolence in thought, word, and deed. In ancient India, this lifestyle was simply seen as morally commendable, and Jain monks have been admired not only within their own community, but across the Indian traditions, and have influenced adherents of other paths, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, to emulate their peaceful ethic. In modern times, however, it has become apparent that, if all human beings were to absorb even a little bit of the Jain ethos, and to pursue a simpler lifestyle, with a lower environmental impact, then the earth would likely have been spared the ecological crisis under which it is currently suffering, and in which many species are going extinct. The traditional Jain diet, designed to reduce harm to living things, has been shown not only to have a beneficial impact on the health of those who observe it, but also to reduce human impact on the environment. The raising and butchering of animals for their meat, apart from being cruel, also has a massive environmental impact, actually utilizing more energy than it yields. As I have written elsewhere, the paradox of Jain asceticism is that the Jain monks, in renouncing the world, may be showing the path to saving it.
In addition to biology and ecology, traditional Jain teaching contains remarkable resonances with modern science in other areas as well, such as physics. The Jains were conceiving of the physical universe as being made up of atomic and subatomic elements thousands of years before the invention of the electron microscope. There is a sophisticated discourse in Jain philosophy on how paramanus, the smallest possible unit of space, are capable of joining together to form more complex patterns, now unlike the ways in which atoms are depicted in modern science to come together to form molecules, and in which subatomic particles come together to form atoms.
