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JULY, 1976
subtlety and accommodating power of molecules). The modern science has discovered a substance called nuclear matter, first of all discovered by Adams, which is two thousand times denser than platinum, the heaviest metal known on earth. The formation of such a matter in certain stars can be explained in no other way but by saying that somehow a very large number of atoms have become packed in a small compass in nuclear matter. Writing about the nuclear mater the great astro-physicist A.S. Eddington once said that one ton of nuclear matter can be easily carried in a waist coat pocket.
(2) Einstein's Principle of Equivalence between Matter and Energy: This principle is epitomised in the equation E=mca; and in the common parlance it means that one gram of any kind of matter when fully changed into energy is equivalent to quantity of heat which would be produced by the burning of three thousands tons of best variety of coal. If we peep into the history of development of science, we come across very funny ideas about heat, light and electricity. That these are manifestations of energy was realised very late. It is a bit surprising that in the Jaina scriptures it is clearly mentioned that out of the six different forms into which matter manifests itself, namely, solid, liquid, gases, energy, karmic, matter and elementary particles, heat, light and electricity belong to sthūla-sukṣma class, that is energy chāyātapādyāh sthūletarāh. It means that the perfect identity between matter and energy was known to us although the quantitative relation given by Einstein was missing. It is this identity between matter and energy which ultimately led to the development of the atom bomb.
(3) Pudgala: This is rather a peculiar word for praksti (Nature) or what is more popularly known as matter. But it is full of inner meaning as defined in the following words "purayanti galayanti iti pudgalah” (that which undergoes modifications by combinations and dissociations). Today one whole branch of physics deals with these disintegrations, natural and artificial. We know that an atom of uranium naturally dissociates into an atom of radium and finally after undergoing some intermediate changes into the form of lead. When the nucleus of nitrogen atom is bombarded by an alpha particle the alpha particle becomes embedded into the nucleus and an atom of oxygen is formed. This is an example of change in pudgala by purayanti process. When a lithium atom is bombarded by a proton the resulting atom bursts and two alphaparticles fly in opposite directions. This is a case where modification is introduced into matter by galayanti (fission) process. Such examples are without number and need not be multiplied. The atom bomb is a case of galayanti fission and a hydrogen bomb a case of purayanti (fusion) process.
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