Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

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

Page 97

Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
97
within the Universe. Some of the enigmatic points framed above are eternal questions and have not been satisfactorily answered. Whether they will ever be understood remains to be seen.
According to Jainism, the universe consists of Loka which is finite and is immersed in infinite space. Jains have given considerable thought to the structure of the universe, its shape, size and units of time and space. Their concept of numbers (a variety of infinities to innumerables to smallest numbers possible) and the precision with which the calculations have been made, comparable to the present day precision, is amazing. It is not however surprising in the land where numerals and decimal system were discovered. Unfortunately there is much confusion in the units of space and time because inconsistencies have crept in the undocumented (memorized) records over several millennia. None the less, the concepts are still preserved and comparison of contemporary astronomical dimensions of the relevant Jain structures may be able to resolve the discrepancies in Jain units of time and space. An added confusion arises because at places Jains use devgati (divine velocity) and calculate the dimensions which bear the same name as the common units; For example dev-yojan and yojan have been mentioned and used to describe certain aspects of the universe. In spite of these difficulties we make an attempt here to describe and compare the modern and the Jain concepts.
Modern Cosmology:
One of the assumptions on which some of the present theories of cosmology have been developed is that the Universe on a large scale is isotropic and homogeneous. It is infinite in expanse and it does not change with time, an assumption known as the Perfect Cosmological Principle.
Theoretical calculations showed that a static universe is not possible and therefore dynamic Universe models (expanding, oscillating etc) have been proposed. Before we try to understand the way the Universe originated it is necessary to define what a Universe is. One way of defining it is that it is the totality of space, time, matter and energy. The jiva has no place in the modern cosmology although it is considered to be very important in Jain cosmology.
The most acceptable theory for its origin, well supported by precise observations and theoretical calculations is the Big Bang theory but other models are also possible. The Big Bang model shows that the universe started with a big explosion some 14 billion years ago. There was nothing before this time; even the time was born then.