Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 170

HINDU AND JAINA CONCEPTS OF MAHĀPRALATA
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clouds for the first seven days, violent storms for the next seven days, heavy rains during the 3rd week and rains of fire during the 4th week. During the next 3 weeks there is rain of stones, earth clods and wood respectively. The result is that all living beings, animals and birds are destroyed. In fact the whole cities are razed to the ground. The Jaina Tīrthankaras have called this period as Pralaya. Only the sexual beings are removed to places of safety by the devas where they multiply again after the storm is over. Here the cycle of Decline ends.
After this, the cycle is repeated in the reverse order and after undergoing six similar stages of time, status-quo is restored.
In the description elaborated so far, we have discussed the ideas of Hindus and Jainas with regard to the eternal cyclic changes in the universe. The following points of difference emerge out of the discussion:
1. According to Hindus the whole Earth is submerged under water 15 times during one Kalpa, whereas according to Jainas it is only once at the end of the 4th epoch and that too partially.
2. According to Hindus at the time of Maha Pralaya all matter, Space and Time are engulfed into the Supreme Being and then it is He who unfolds the universe again, whereas according to Jainas the nature of the universe itself is such that after it has completely run down, it regenerates itself by carrying out the cycle in the reverse order.
According to Modern Science, the universe is gradually running down in the material sense of the word. In the language of science we say that the entropy of the universe is tending towards the maximum. This has been proved mathematically by Maxwell from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In Nature heat is constantly flowing without interruption from a body at a higher temperature to a body at a lower temperature and air automatically flow from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure. Thus there is a tendency towards equalisation of