Book Title: Jainism and World Problems
Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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Page 123
________________ EVOLUTION Jain Education International The sixth miracle is the appearance of sight, again under the influence of surroundings and environments. We must take it that if our walls remain standing long enough they will one day evolve out eyes and the other senses; they have thus far not done so simply because no wall has had a sufficiently long lease of life, though some have stood for thousands of years. As soon as a thing-be it a wall or a door post-evolves out an inclination to know, it is marching on the road to the obtainment of sight, without a doubt. The fact that eyes are always placed in the head, and not on any other part of the body, e,g., the hips, just proves that nature is unerring in her designs. Who has not seen her laboriously painting lowly worms with protective colours to prevent their falling an easy prey to their enemies? It matters not that nature is a mere word; it is sufficient that she works with prevision and thought. We must after this refuse to answer the question as to why every one should have two eyes. You should try to think that the line of the visual tendency did not run a straight course, and must have become bifurcated somewhere and sometime in the past. The seventh miracle is certainly the most wonderful of all that have been noted thus far. Hearing now appears in response to the influence of the external surroundings! We must offer our meed of wonderment and admiration to these outside factors. The ears have clearly followed in the footsteps of the eyes. This is why we have two ears, and not only one. One would not have simply done when there were two eyes to match! And the most admirable thing about the ears is that they never appear on any other part of the body, e.g., the big toe. We must hold that the current of the modifying external influences divided itself about the animal's head when it came in contact with it. You should take this as the latest explanation and very authentic! All this was not quite unknown to the ancients, though they lacked the scientific 115 For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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