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were composed of 'particles' called 'atoms' (this in Greek means 'uncut'); the former two on the 'yes' side and the latter viz Plato on the 'no' side. The theory of 'atom' since ages past known to Jainism was very near to that thought and propounded by Leucippus and Democritus as late as in the 5th century B.C...The last invisible particle of matter, further indivisible in Jainism was named 'paramanu' which was also indestructible, uncombustible and impenetrable yet of a finite size. The atom of the Greeks has now been broken Into electrons, protons, neutrons, positrons, hadrons and finally even named as fields because of its being ultimately found of the dual aspect of both a particle and a wave while the paramanu of the Jainas has stili remained the same with all these already anticipated. as seen and experienced by their 'Arhantas' long, long ago. Naturally when therefore one reads about the 'atom' first having been conceived by the Greeks, one is indeed amused at the ignorance.
It was Plato however who declared that the universe was not created by either blind necessity or the chance collection of atoms. Universe to him represented 'mind' or a 'rational cause'. Like Vedantins. he asserted that every thing was alive, even what we ordinarily thought of as inanimate matter was a lower form of life. The universe to Plato had a soul, a vital force that animated it. He regarded even all the heavenly bodies as divine beings. His disciple and student Aristotle went beyond him by rejecting that the universe was a living thing. To him it was a material thing, though unique, finite and spherical, yet not of separate atoms coming together but of one continuous matter which aroused the question: how can something be finite unless it was bounded by something detached from itself? To this there was no answer. He considered the universe as a single continuous substance and departed radically from the metaphysical aspects of his teacher and atomic aspects of his predecessors Leucippus and Democritus. He, it was believed, embraced upon more scientific lines. Jainism's concept of Alokakasha' bounding i.e. giving limit to the universe
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