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THE JAINA GAZETTE never be justified in stating the results of his investigations with any confidence ; if he must make a positive assertion, the only one he is entitled to make is that in cosmogony we know nothing at all for certain.' (Ibid page 190) The distances in Jainism and modern Astronomy are so huge that for practical purposes they are similar, if not the same. But there are other radical differences between the two, which can be studied with suspended judgment only by considering that Science is progressive and changeable and Jainism claims to give account of Truth in its eternal unchangeability. The change of front of Science from the geocentric to the helio-centric theory, as also its constant variations in the figures of its calculations are wellknown. It is not quite impossible that when Science becomes maturer in its further progression, it may rediscover the facts and figures given about astronomy in the fragmentary and little known and less studied tradition of Jainism which is all that humanity can claim to possess at the present time.
Q. 5. On page 9 you state that all the Residential etc, have bodily sexual union like human beings but on page 6th Gods have no body like men. Then is not the union merely Platonic gratification ?
Ans. Platonic gratisication may be a rough and remote analogue of the sexual gratification of the gods beyond the first two heavens. But the Residential, Peripatetic, Stellar and Heavenly gods in the first 31 patalas or heavenly layers have bodily sexual union like human beings but with their own fluid or Vaikriyaka bodies. If the illustration is not taken literally one may illustrate this celestial union by the rushing of one cloud into another and uniting with it.
Q. 6. What is the food of the Gods? Does Jainism hold the food to be ambrosia and nectar as the Hindus believe?
Ans. The function of all food is to enable the body to help a living being to perform his specific duties. Thus there is an obvious infirmity of difference between the foods of men and gods. The description of their food as ambrosia and nectar may be making a god too much a man. I think that the food of the
gods must correspond in its nature and character to the body Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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