Book Title: Jains Through Time
Author(s): Shilapi Sadhvi
Publisher: Veerayatan

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Page 229
________________ Man has always been curious to know more about this infinite universe. His curiosity is the natural 'religion' of an active mind. It is the beginning of all progress, and the basis for development. It is curiosity alone that has made man more knowledgeable. It has given us the ability to soar like the birds in endless skies. It has shown us how to swim the gloomy depths of the ocean like fish. When countless stars shine in the night sky and meteorites shower the ground, the human mind instinctively asks, What are these things? How were they created? Why do they change? What principle governs the suspension of the earth in space? What makes it rotate? Why do the sun and the moon shine and the stars twinkle? Why does death exist? What causes these changes? How do they happen?' At any moment, thousands of questions pop up in the human mind. It searches constantly for answers to them. These things cannot just be put to one side as incomprehensible. By saying that they are unanswerable, like the Buddha did, does not make the problem go away. The mind will Jain Education International The Jains through Time know no peace until these questions are answered. Both religion and science have attempted to find answers to these mysteries. Science restricts itself to what is observable. It tries to penetrate nature's secrets. It gives us information about the subtle secrets of atoms and molecules. Yet however fine its scrutiny, there is a limit to its scope. As science proceeds by induction and the experimental method, it can never arrive at a final truth. Its judgements are based on probabilities and hypotheses. Religion deals with inner feelings, with the experiment of the soul. It tries to solve questions with a knowledge that lies outside the ken of the senses. The findings of the laboratory cannot match this. Science can observe planets billions of miles away, but it is not able to see into the soul. Religion concerns itself with what lies beyond the realm of the quantifiable or the objectively observable; it is concerned with inner states of being, whereas science is concerned with outward possibilities. Religion's truths are intuitive, founded upon a rigorous process of For Private & Personal Use Only 230 www.jainelibrary.org

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