Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

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

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Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
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in a concerted way. What happens to one of them affects the other instantaneously, regardless of the distance. Thus entanglement can transcend space. The same principle is valid for sentient beings and all jivas are entangled. In practice it implies that the best way to help one self is to help others.
We have discussed various aspects of Jainism and modern physics and find that there is some common principles involved in both. We thus see that by properly amalgamating Jain concepts with concepts of modern physics, it should be possible to ascertain the true nature of reality and make further predictions. Anek?ntavidcan be applied to test many predictions of modern science and may have a role to play in making a correct choice between different possibilities. We end this chapter by summarizing these areas of agreement and disagreement.
Jainism divides the universe into Jiva (soul) and Ajiva (matter) and treats the whole universe as an interplay between the two. Everything in the Universe, howsoever trivial, exists for the sustenance of the jiva. Nothing is useless as far as the jiva is concerned. Jainism asserts that both, jiva and ajiva, are governed by certain laws which are eternal, universal and can not be violated. Science deals with only the matter and asserts that they are governed by laws of physics, which are universal and can not be violated. Anekintvidof Jains, applicable to both jiva and Ajiva can be compared with the principle of complementarity found to hold good for micro particles and is a basic concept in quantum physics. Anekintvid in fact goes much beyond complementarity, i.e. instead of just two aspects, it considers infinite aspects. Jainism divides the universe in knower and the known. Both interact through knowledge, which affects both of them. Physics deals with the knowable objects through observation (knowledge) and asserts that observation modifies the object in some ways. This has led to the principle of Uncertainty, postulated by Heisenberg. In comparison, Jainism asserts that knowledge, or measurement modifies both the knower and the known, which of course is true in everyday experience. One of the fundamental aspects of Jainism is Karmavid, which is equivalent to Causality in physics; only it is applicable to sentient as well as non sentient, both. This law has led to determinism in physics, that every thing is predetermined, since it follows the laws. This is equivalent to krambaddha pary ły, a kind of determinism in sentient world. The question of origin of inertial mass in physics led Earnst Mach to postulate that the mass in a body arises because of the mass present in the rest of the universe. Their existence is mutual. This is equivalent to the one of the basic principles of Jainism " Parasparograho Jiv ?n?m", which has been reinterpreted here to mean that life at a place exists because of the presence of