Journal of Gyansagar Science Foundation 2013 04 01

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

Page 82

Dr. Surendra Singh Pokharna, Volume 1 Issue 1 April 2013
are transferred to the next generation. However, in Jainism, it is individual soul which leaves a body in one life and goes to another world after leaving the body in one life. As knowledge is major characteristic of the soul, knowledge is carried over to the other birth (as soul never dies even when the body dies). Darwin's does not talk about any goal in the process of evolution, except for natural selection and the whole evolution could be a set of randomly occurring steps of evolution without following any direction to achieve any goal. Jainism on the other hand talks of Moksha or saiddha Samadhi, which is the target or one's goal. Hence many uncertainties are reduced. Darwin's principle is around 150 years old whereas Jain's principle of evolution is at least 3000 years old and is still found very relevant in the modern time, hence more rigorous research is required in this direction in view. In view of the above principle of Jainism that worshipping of all animal kingdom and plant kingdoms and all natural objects like water, soil, air etc. is encouraged. Hence in Jainism, a concept of "Live and Let live" has evolved, indicating respect for all living beings and aims to define future goal of all living beings. On the other hand the Darwin's principle of evolution, developed in west is based on the concept of natural selection (now genetic based mutations etc.) and is expressed in form of "survival of the fittest". This is totally opposite of the Jain principle of "Live and Let Live". These two opposite thoughts can be reconciled through one argument. It is this, that in the Indian system, the emphasis is on recognizing the underlying identity among all living beings (like unified field theory) whereas in the case of Darwin's principle of "survival of the fittest" can be traced to an emphasis on the differences among the living beings. As concept of development is closely related with concept of evolution present in a society and the goals of the society. Hence concept of consumerism developed in western world but in Indian system, there is more emphasis on spiritual development whihch automatically reduces consumption of resources.
and biological systems like social systems and human systems. It is mentioned that concept of information and knowledge has to be also enlarged by taking the concept of knowledge through consciousness into account. We strongly feel that there is a need to realize that all scientific knowledge is just a small set of knowledge structured in the consciousness. In particular it is shown that Jain's concept of knowledge through consciousness (soul) can be very useful to have an enlarged concept of knowledge, which can include extra sensory perceptions (ESP) like telepathy and clairvoyance also. It is shown that Jain concept of evolution in which a soul become more and more pure with increase in knowledge and reduction in materialistic attachment (karmas) is accompanied by an increases in the orderliness of the brain and mind. Example of extraordinary memory of Swamy Vivekanand is given to illustrate the meaning of this order. Two more examples from Jainism are given which show extra ordinary states of mind of satavdhanies. In another example, it is shown that ancient Jain aacharyas might have even tried to estimate the sizes of the smallest particles of matter like atoms and nuclei through highly advanced telepathy. The sizes given by them are statistically quite close to the current sizes of atoms and nuclei. It shows existence of telepathy of very high order. Several examples of order and entropy are given from different walks of life along with methodology and procedures from Jainism to increase state of orderliness and reduce entropy in individual and the society.
It is also mentioned that the Jain principle of "Live and Let Live" should be compared with the Darwin's principle of evolution described by "Survival of the fittest". The difference between the two will have totally different impact on the concept of development and the society in general and direction of evolution in particular. The Jain concept of evolution is then mentioned to indicate that their concept of fourteen stages of evolution of soul (Gunasthans) is a very exciting concept and needs further exploration and needs for a comparison with the Darwin's principle of evolution.
This is an exploratory study only and is an example of multi disciplinary work where many loosely defined terms are used. They need to be further perfected.
Results and Discussion
Conclusion
This along with the first paper in this series (GSFB) have attempted to explore limitations of scientific methodologies found so successful to study physical systems are actually not adequate to understand biological and human systems thoroughly. Hence a concept of General Systems Theory (GST) is required to develop a unified formalism which includes both physical
This paper attempts to explore possibility of developing a holistic approach towards the modern problems in different walks of life. It is shown that scientific methodologies found so successful to study physical systems are not adequate in this context. Hence a concept of General Systems Theory (GST) is required to
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