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76/JAIN STUDIES AND SCIENCE
Conclusions of Jainism:
Among all extensively followed religions like Hinduism, Jews, Christians, Islam, the universe is presumed to be created (by GOD). For the first time in the known history, famous philosopher, Aristotle put forward the notion of nobeginning-no-end. Mahapragya too has written in his earlier literary works that Jainism does not support 'beginning' and 'end' theory. He writes that central to entire 'Jain' theme is:
> Everything in the universe is
a. dynamic b. finite
c. cyclic
Accordingly, the universe neither gets completely destroyed nor is created out of nothing. The following time-energy-matter graph clearly depicts the Jain ideology.
As is manifested above, the matter of universe appears to vanish into pure energy at the end of each era (descend). According to the Jain philosophy, it is sixth frame of descending cycle (called Avasarpani). It remotely resembles what we know as moment of destruction or big-crunch. From the second frame of ascending cycle (called Utsarpani) the creation of matter starts again. This resembles the moment of creation or big-bang. This cycle of ascend and descend is perennial. Jains have designated a period of five Bharats and five Airavats to each of these cycles. As is clearly depicted, the matter and energy transmute into each other but in totality no destruction or creation takes place. Here, the Jain philosophy explains what science could not - the state of universe before “the beginning' and after the end'.
FOUR SIDED FIGURE OF UNIVERSE
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