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Introduction
Eastern mystics in general and Jains in particular emphasize the systematic unity of Reality which does not mean that all things are identical, but they are aware that all differences and contrasts are relative (and not absolute) within an all-embracing unity. It is difficult to accept the paradoxical unity of opposites in our normal state of consciousness and even some philosophies either bypass or conceal the problem. Jain philosophers, on the other hand, by their remarkable insight, reveal the relativity and polar relationship of all opposites which not only include unity and multiplicity, motion and rest, but also the fundamental attributes of existence and non-existence. The Jain doctrine of non-absolutism (anekānta vāda) solves the problem by affirming the possibility of diverse attributes in a unitary entity. A thing exists in some context and does not exist in some other context. In atomic physics, we can never predict the absolute existence or absolute non-existence of a subatomic particle. We can never say that it does not exist, but the particle has tendencies or probabilities to exist in various places and this manifests a strange kind of physical reality between existence and non-existence. In this book, we shall briefly discuss the Jain philosophy of nonabsolutism and how it can be applied to properly understand the paradoxical behaviour of subatomic particles. Readers will recognise many parallels between the notions of atomic physics and Jain views.
“Modern science has made tremendous progress during the last hundred years. Few people have been more publicly admired than scientists, engineers and technologists. Together they discovered the secrets of the microcosm and perfected the ways of controlling and tapping colossal stores of nuclear energy, they probed the vast spaces of the universe and pried into the mysteries of the macrocosm, discovered the mechanisms of heredity and compounded the miracle of modern medicine. With utmost daring and immense resourcefulness, they capped their achievements by landing man on the moon to gather first-hand knowledge of the earth's nearest celestial body.
"Ironically this very age of unprecedented scientific progress has also become the dawn of a new age of doubts, regarding the
1. Time (Weekly Magazine)
