Book Title: Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics
Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 228
________________ Matter 213 manner, within the microcosm of the Id? These are questions in Biology as yet unanswered. The Indian theory attempts to offer some explanation by saying that the Linga Sarīra is a collection of forces directing the plastic germmatter in a definite manner and towards a definite end and purpose. Biology has been forced to admit that the germplasm has rudiments of life in it. It is apparent that even the hypothesis of life is scarcely sufficient to answer the question indicated above. Definite manners of operation and operations towards a definite end require more than life for their guidance. The millions of male ciliated cells, for instance, pressing round the ovum are all living substances; how is it that only one out of these millions penetrates to the nucleus of the ovum in order that the two sexual cells of both parents may coalescence into the formaion of the impregnated egg-cell i.e. the individual stem-cell or the Cytula', as it has been called ? Attempts have been made to account for this coalescence of the nuclei of the spermatozoon and the ovum by saying that they are drawn together by “a mysterious force”, by attributing to them “a chemical sense activity”, by supposing that the two parent cell nuclei approach each other guided by an instinct of sensitive perception akin to "smell”, by ascribing to the two nuclei, a sort of mutual amorous attraction “a kind of erotic chemicotrophism". These are at best figurative expressions concealing the admission that the fact of coalescence of the parent cells is inexplicable even on the hypothesis of life. Indian philosophers on the contrary say that the joining of the parental nuclei is not a fortuitous event; the coalescence is effected by the Linga Śarira with the self immanent in it, in order that a new gross Body may be made for its re-incarnation. Take next the question of varieties of Bɔdy. How is it that in the one case a lion's body and in the other, a human body, two different Bodies are formed from the cell substance? Weisman of course premises that each Id contains not only the general but specific possibilities also of the new organism. The experiments of Hertwig, however, show that the cells are not Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430