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PRABUDDH JEEVAN
Jain Conviction... A Scientific Epitome of seamless life
Prachi Dhanwant Shah
As a parent, today it gets very much unfussy to nurture the values of Jain Religion to my children when the majority of Jain facts are correlated to science and can be proved right and easy to follow with the concepts of science. There are simple do's and don'ts which have scientific reasoning to it and so when I explain the same to my children or rather every child around at our Gyanshala class in N.J. they pursue the same with a big smile of acceptance on their face. By now, I am sure we adults are aware of this fact that how Jainism is substantiated as a religion of facts with the help of science. And so, it is our duty to explicate these facts to our imminent generation and not just impose the same upon them. In today's era of technology and science when we tell our child that you are Jain by religion and so you must follow 'X' number of rules and regulations, then I'm sure, one day it will rebel back to you. But when the same facts of Jain religion are explained with reasoning and scientific concepts to it, it will get easy for every child to understand it and so, it will become their choice to pursue it and not an obligatory or levied principle to be routed at a certain point of life.
DECEMBER 2016
It is a known fact that Jainism is one of the oldest religion in the world, holding the oldest philosophy too! It was originated 5,000 years ago i.e. 3,000 B.C., and was put forth to us by 24 Tirthankars who had already attained moksha - reincarnation and then structured this religion to benchmark the right path of salvation for us. To put it in simple words, which you might know, that for every Jain or rather every human being, the decisive goal of his/her life should be Moksha... understand the soul, purify it to attain Nirvana and escape the cycle of reincarnation to free the soul.
This can be simplified, by understanding a simple philosophy of karma. On the aspects of karma, we have been gifted with this life, where it is our duty to make a call for ourselves, if we wish to shed off the backloaded of our bad karmas and keep pursuing good karmas or add on to the bad karmas. When a child understands this, he will think twice before putting forth an action. But for this ofcourse it is our duty as a parent to keep reminding the said philosophy of karma to them. We
need to understand the Law of Karma thoroughly and foster the same to our prospect generation. Every human being needs to be a soul who has conquered over his/her negativity and desires and that would lead the soul to the right path of serenity.
Keeping the same aspects in mind, I would like to pen down few of the corelation of Jainism and science. It is not an unknown fact that today, many Jain centres and universities have presented several papers and articles explaining the scientific attribute of Jainism. And that enforces me to bring forth few of them for you on this platform.
Jainism is the only religion which believes that no one has created this universe. This universe is eternal and no one is the creator nor the destroyer of this universe. Jainism believes that every element and action in this universe, is the cause and effect is of universal natural laws. Science proved the same. In the year 1964, a scientist named Higgs Bosson proved by means of his scientific theory, that this universe is the result of a Big Bang. To prove the same, currently researchers are working on the same using a large tool named Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The same has been mentioned in Tatvasutra around 2000 years back by Shri Umaswatiji.
Adding to the same, according to Jain Cosmology, this universe is constrained of two main substances i.e. Jeev (living - soul) and Ajeev (Nonliving - Pudgal - Matter). Jeev is eternal and Ajeev is pudgal attached to this eternal soul. As per Jainism, just as there is a law of universe applicable to matter, there is a law of universe applicable to our soul and that is what is called as Karma. These laws that apply to our soul i.e. law of karma that attaches to your soul, are unescapable and no one can save you from these laws of Karma. When this soul receives a body in the form of pudgal, it furnishes actions. If this soul is clean and free of bad karmas, it will deliberately bestow good actions. Hence, Jainism teaches us to distill this soul as to decide the fate of our soul.
Similarly, talking in terms of science every matter is composed of elements i.e. molecules with the help of which, matter produces energy. The kind of energy
