Pristine Jainism

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 64

Cyclic Changes not Creation
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The next Dukhama-Dukhamā period will be much worse because of more and more pressure on natural resources and their depletion. The end of this period will be the end of Avasarpiņi (descending Cycle). It will be followed by Utsarpiņi(ascending Cycle), starting first with repeat of Dukhamā-Dukhamă followed by Dukhamā, Dukhamā-Sukhamā, Sukhamā-Dukhamā, Sukhamā and ending with Sukhamā-Sukhamā, completing the whole cycle of Avasarpiņi-Utsarpiņi. The new cycle will start in descending order with repeat of Sukhama-Sukhamā and in the order mentioned above and it will continue repeating over and over again.
Succession-Retrogression Concepts in Forestry:
It is interesting to note that the above cyclic ascending and descending changes conform to cyclic retrogression and progression well established, studied and documented in modern forestry. If a good dense forest with higher varieties of trees is subjected to biotic pressures of increasing human and animal population, resulting in over exploitation, grazing, burning, then the forest degrades to lower and lower quality and density and to grasslands and ultimately barren eroded lands. It is well established that there were good forests initially. These were what are now technically described as climax forests. Such forests have the highest evolved variety of trees, which perpetuates through symbiotic interactions of all life forms. Even carnivora like tigers, wolves etc were not killers but nature's scavengers for naturally dead bodies which were aplenty. The conditions in these climax or pristine forests conform to conditions mentioned under Sukhama-Sukhamā period. The degradation of climax forest started with increasing biotic pressure and very rapidly after birth of agriculture and more so with rapid industrialisation. This is retrogression in modern ecological and forestry terms. This corresponds to descending order mentioned in Jaina literature. If the process is reversed and biotic pressure is withdrawn then even a highly degraded bare land starts improving with first grasses, then higher and higher forms of species and eventually climax forest. There are several stages both in succession (progression) and also in retrogression. The succession or retrogression