Journal of Gyansagar Science Foundation 2013 04 01

Author(s): Sanjeev Sogani, Vimal Jain
Publisher: Gyansagar Science Foundation

Page 35

Dr. Surendra Singh Pokharna, Volume 1 Issue 1 April 2013
admiration all around. People were profoundly impressed by his extra ordinary mental powers. (Author could not get the list of these hundred activities).
production of this biosphere decreases. In addition this may be accompanied by the appearance of a new kind of order which is being described above and could be linked with an orderly state of consciousness. Therefore there is a need to investigate the different states of human consciousness which can be in highly ordered states as mentioned in above sections.
After one hundred and twenty five years of performance of shrimad rajchandra at the age of 19, another shatavdhani is creating history, again at the age of the 19 years. This great young shatavdhani is param pujya yuva shatavdhani munishri ajitchandrasagarji maharaj sahebji. He can reproduce not only 100 facts but 108 facts in ascending, descending and random order. The details of questions are given in the appendix 1. This demonstration was done twice in Ahmadabad (Nov 16, 2008 and January 9, 2009). The former was held in Town Hall and author was present there.
Darwin's principle of "Survival of Fittest” vs Jain's principle of "Live and Let Live"
Did ancient Jain Acharyas tried to estimate size of smallest particles of matter Another example is taken from ancient Jain scriptures (Triloy Pannati, Jain RC. 1975) Actually Appendix 3 gives a Table for measurement of length. It starts from smallest particle of matter and goes upto one Yojana. This is an octal system till step 12. It indicates that our ancient Jain acharyas have made an attempt to develop a table for measurement of length in 20 steps. As explained in the Appendix, if we statistically interpret it then we find that as per their assessment, the size of smallest particle of matter is 2.9X I 0-13 cm. Now the mere fact that this concept might have evolved through a realization of this higher level of consciousness is worth examining. It appears to involve advanced telepathy (known as avadhi jnana in Jainism) through which one can see even one pradesha. An acharya who is having this capability must have brain in a very state of order.
The above examples have shown that one should take this concept of evolution of consciousness of Jainism seriously. Hence at this juncture, it is high time that we discuss the process of evolution of soul as described in Jainism and compare it with the Darwin's principle of evolution. Darwin talks of evolution of human beings and mammals and observes that all humans have striking similarities with apes and hence humans evolve from apes through natural selection in very slow processes over long time. However, Darwin's ideas are based on analysis of past data and develop correlations among them to establish his hypothesis. He finds that there are no goals for species. They only look at nearby future and attempts to survive. (Wikipedia). Goldsmith (1990) feels that it is due to too much emphasis of the education of this Darwin's principle of evolution that so much damage has been done to the environment. On the other hand, it appears that the Jain's principle of evolution is characterized by an increase of some kind of order in oneself which increases as one goes up with increasing purity of the soul. Actually a ladder of 14 Gunasthanas is defined in Jainism (Jain, 1997). These gunasthanas are similar to phases in physics, chemistry and biology. The difference between spiritual evolution of Jainism and Darwin's evolution can be described in what follows:
Do spiritual processes help to reduce Entropy Production in biosphere
Table 1. Darwin's principle of "Survival of Fittest" vs Jain's principle of "Live and Let Live"
Form this analysis, we find that Jain acharyas have spiritually ordered mind and if we look at their behavior and daily practices then we find that they consume minimum resources and hence generate least entropy in the environment. As they go to higher and higher stages of evolution, their resources consumptions go on reducing.
Jain's principle of "Live and Let Live" Based on spiritual reality
We seriously feel that the various religious and spiritual practices developed by the ancient Indian seers like Yoga, Meditation, Sadhna and others are all aimed at an overall decrease in the rate of entropy production of this biosphere. Although the processes initiated at an individual level but it expands in the society through the various interlinkages present in the social system. It appears that as the number of persons carrying out these practices increase the average overall rate of entropy
Darwin's principle of "Survival of fittest" Based on physical reality Emphasis on differences in species Results into unwanted competition Society has been damaged due to this Need to highlight its disadvantages
Emphasis on underlying identity Results into healthy cooperation Society gets new perception
Need to spread it in the world
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