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THEORY OF MATTEREALS AND JAIN PHILOSOPHY / 71
Mahapragya explains that the Jains could find above universal Laws as they do not believe in the authority of GOD as the creator or perpetuator. According to him, modern science also does not support the idea of universe being created and conducted by any supreme-power. Statements of Einstein and Hawking
“God is left with nothing to do, as the disciplined Nature is governed by its own laws and principles" - how close Einstein is to the Jain view point! Bestseller physicist and well known contemporary scientist Hawking, too, believes that the cosmos is no-beginning no-end phenomenon. A lot of scientific investigations are going on today in the field of astrophysics. Largest of the large and smallest of the small are keenly scrutinised by the modern scientists who are equipped with latest electronic telescopes and fastest computers to analyse the enormous data. While at one end they are eager to know massive black-holes, on the other hand they are enthusiastic to study the minutest particles like quarks and gluons. It would therefore be relevant to undertake a comparative study of Jain Philosophy vis-à-vis Science. To start with, we shall first chronologically arrange the history of cosmic studies. History of Universal Exploration by Scientists
Scientific study is presumed to have started with Copernicus in 1514 when he, for the first time, declared the sun as the centre of our planet system contrary to the then prevailing idea of Earth being at the centre as proposed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
This established the first fact - Orbits of our solar system are sun-centric and not geo-centric.
Unlike our modern times, where a new concept is introduced every year, it took almost 100 years for Galileo to confirm it way back in the year 1609. Around the year 1687, an idea was mooted by Sir Newton about having an infinite static universe. But his own theory of gravitation contradicted it. Owing to the gravitational force, the stars in static universe will fall into one another and the universe would have collapsed. As the Solar system was thoroughly understood and mathematical
orbits were established solidly, scientists turned their attention to • the outer universe. Arguments kept on waging about whether the
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