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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were erroneous (Appendix-1). It is not the purpose of this chapter to go in to the history and priorities in arithmetic and geometry but to discuss some concepts which may still be relevant.
The number system enabled ancient Jains to define vast sets of units of time and space, although they did not use decimal system and preferred some kind of binary or other adhoc (multiples of six or eight) systems. Jains divided numbers in to three types, enumerable (countable), innumerable (uncountable, Asankhy t) and infinite (Anant). Infinity is something which has no boundaries. Asankhy it (innumerable) is a unique concept developed in Jainism and defines a number with flexible boundaries. It is strange that some number are considered innumerable (Asankhy?), because the power system, already known, enables one to count any number, howsoever large or small it may be, so that there should be only two types of numbers, countable and infinite, as is currently accepted. Value of Shirsh Prahelika determined to be 10250, calculated accurately to 70 digits is mentioned and is probably the largest number we encounter in Jain scriptures, although we do not know its significance. Asankhyat is also used in connection with the units of time (samay and avalik?) which themselves are very small. It is mentioned in Taty ?rtha-r 1javartik - that it is not in the power of even the omniscient to know the asankhy?t number precisely. We attach deep philosophical and scientific connotation to the innumerable. We take the view that the number of entities can not be counted, only if the entity is continuously changing its properties and is indeterminable. We interpret innumerable as not necessarily a very large or very small number but as a number which can not be determined because the number of entity is changing at every instant. Such examples do exist in physics. Due to particle-wave duality, the number of particles in a box can not be precisely counted; only their probability can be estimated. This will imply it to be innumerable or asankhy it. This brings us to the Uncertainty Principle discussed in the previous chapter. Heisenberg found that certain parameters (like energy and time; location and momentum of an elementary particle), both can not be measured with absolute precision but within an error related to Planck's constant (h), not because of the limitations of the instruments but because this uncertainty is the fundamental law of nature. Another example of indeterminate number or asankhy't may be the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. A nucleus is made of protons and neutrons and on the average it is said that a nucleus of, say oxygen, has 8 protons and 8 neutrons. However neutrons and protons are continuously changing from one form to another. This is what the Japanese physicist Yukawa found and proposed an exchange meson called pi-meson. So at any instant it is impossible to say exactly how many neutrons and protons are there in the oxygen