Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

Page 123

available before they are accepte Enlightened.
Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
123
solar system came in to existence, two stars (one of them being our sun) had a close encounter and pulled out material from each other in a cigar shaped mass, which subsequently coalesced in to planets. The other star then moved far away on its course and it is not possible to identify it now. This theory is no longer in vogue and has been replaced by the theory of solar nebula formed from a cold, rotating, dense molecular cloud which gave rise to Sun and planets as it contracted. The two moon theory is explained on the basis that the Earth at times, temporarily captures another satellite as the small bodies of the solar system (asteroids) pass by. This is quite plausible and has happenedoccasionally, though at present the earth has only one big satellite, our Moon and millions of small bodies (dust particles) going around. These small bodies can hardly be called natural satellites. The period of day and night varying between about 18 and 6 hours, mentioned in the Surya and Chandra Pa a aati do not fully give the range of their periods from polar to equatorial regions of the earth (which ranges up to 6 months), and is probably a result of limitation of observation from the limited region of Jambudwipa, that is presumed to be India.
Distance and motion of Sun, Moon and other planets. The distances of the Sun and Moon from the earth are mentioned about equal (800 yojans). In fact the scriptures mention that sun is slightly closer to the earth than moon (may be because the sun is brighter?). This is totally erroneous. The sun is 400 times bigger and 400 times farther from the earth as compared to the moon. Structure of the universe: It is mentioned that the universe has a peculiar shape (Fig. 8.1b). Such a structure is absolutely unstable. This may be taken as projection of a three (or four?) dimensional structure on two dimensional sheet of paper. Cosmological modelsmentioned in the scriptures depict a multi-angular shaped Loka within infinite Aloka. Physics demands that (1) natural shapes are not angular and stable; spheroids, ellipsoids and disks are natural stable shapes (2) there should be an interface between any two bodies or two media with different properties i.e. between Loka and Aloka. One can not sharply end where the other begins as has been seen in many celestial systems. Shape of Jambu Dwipa: Remote sensing and photography from space has given us a definite idea about the shape of continents on the earth. According to scriptures, the continents are circular, each surrounded by a salty ocean (Lawan samudra), each outer structure being twice the size of the previous one. This is certainly not correct. This reminds us of quantum mechanical model of the atomic