Jain Journal 1969 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 43

JANUARY, 1969
137
15. Final words
Despite all the marvellous developments, modern cosmology operates under two severe limitations. The first limitation is that inspite of all the developments, including the fastest ones in radioastronomy, modern cosmology too does not goin its investigation beyond what theology would call heavenly bodies. In theology, in contrast heavenly bodies do not exhaust the universe but constitutes only a part of it, there being many other lokas above the heavenly bodies. This is as much true of the Hindu tradition as of the Jaina. In modern cosmology, the view which was emerging in the mid-fifties was one in which the galaxy of which our solar system constitutes a part is itself a vast spiral nebulae, very similar in size, structure and contents to others and whose mass is that of about 200,000 million Suns and whose diameter is about 60,000 light-years. Nabulae as large as these are not uncommon, but the average is considerably smaller, with a mass of around 10,000 million Suns, including the mass of the dark clouds as well as that of the luminous matter. Now if the theology be accepted as correct,-since the limitation of our observational apparatus cannot prove otherwise, and if that part of loka which comprises heavenly bodies is this vast, one is left only to imagine, if one can, how vast the universe is. The second limitation is that whereas theology has given a picture of what lies beneath, i.e., an analysis of actual distribution in depths, in modern cosmology the interest in this line is only very recent and there too it is very much handicapped. From the little work that has been done in this respect, it has been suggested that distribution in depth is also by and large a random one. In theology there is no such thing as randomness, neither in the upper sphere nor in the depths, the whole system of loka and aloka being highly arranged.
The fact is that as between theology and cosmology there is a gulf of difference between the purpose of investigation. While cosmology is interested in more light, the purpose of theology is to indicate the
cent of the soul in the spiritual path till it reaches the domain from which there is no return. In between are different pleasure-regions where the soul may be temporarily lodged depending on the nature and extent of spiritual progress. The regions in the depth below are intended for the habitation of the sinners, the extent of going down depending on the nature of the sin. The purpose is clearly spiritual, to promote the progress of the soul and yet to uphold the chance of a slip if it deviated from the right path. And this enquiry is not without practical utility ; for millions over millennia have been influenced more by theology than by modern science, desisting from the paths of evil and guiding their soul in the path of spiritual progress with the object of ultimately attaining a state of death-less-ness or no-return.