Science And Jain Philosophy

Author(s): Raksha J Shah, Abhijit Muni, Pooja Banthia
Publisher: International Conference on Science and Jain Philosophy

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International Conference on Science and Jain Philosophy 2016
malpractices, scandals, violence, etc. and enables the nation to make rapid progress in the right direction. It is now seen that moral values are declining world over and this is becoming a cause of concern to educationists, politicians as well as to all members of the society. How to inculcate the moral values in students has become a challenging task. It appears that traditional ways of imparting value education need improvement and efforts must be made for developing new methods and ways to address this issue.
In this age of science and communication new techniques and technology appeal more to young minds. It is therefore imperative that full use of these new means be used to make the moral education program more effective and successful.
Spirituality has been acknowledged to inspire the individuals towards ethical behavior and boosting morality. Spirituality does not belong to any particular religion; it transcends the religious barriers and relates to the inherent goodness in all human beings. Spiritual practices can greatly benefit humanity in making the life simple, moral and ethical.
Emotions are known to heavily influence the human behavior. Emotional development of students must be a part of education system. Jain philosophy says that passions (kashayas) and quasi-passions (nokashayas), which govern the emotions, introduce perversenessinthesoulandremovesitawayfrommoralityandethicalbehaviorandobstructsthe development of values in life. The attachment (raga) and aversion (duesha) are the main cause of perversity in life and mental imbalance. Therefore, for purity of conduct and positive emotional development efforts must be made to reduce negative or destructive emotion accruing from attachment and aversion in behavior.
Everyone seeks peace in life. Violence is antidote to peace. We must strive to find nonviolent ways to resolve our problems in life as well as in society. Violence is now assuming alarming proportions and posing threat to the civilized society. Recognizing the importance of non-violence the United Nations has declared 2nd October, the birth day of Mahatma Gandhi, as Non-violence Day. Scientific-cum-Spiritual techniques for "Training in Nonviolence" in the main solution to mitigate violence.
BMIRC aims to address these issues and suggest ways and means for the following: 1. The information and how of the use of modern means like social media, electronic media, computers, internet, mobile, TV, etc. to inculcate the moral values in youngsters especially students. 2. How spirituality be included in the curriculum and be used to inculcate moral values? 3. How positive emotional development of students can be achieved? 4. How non-violence as a means of peace can be popularized and propagated in the world? 5. In what way Jain philosophy can help in achieving these objectives?
International and National Collaboration for Integrating Jainism and Science Jainism is known for its scientific approach to philosophical doctrines. Not believing in any Creator God or Super power, it advocates for the universe comprising of independent and eternal existences which are governed by their own nature and laws. There is no place for
super natural (or blind) beliefs and role of any external power in the conduct and performance of nature except interaction between the existences as per their natural properties. These basic rules embedded in Jain philosophy also form foundation of modern science which, of course, accepts only the physical order of existence, besides space and time.The Jain view of these scientifically accepted existences also is however very broad
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