Book Title: Scientific Secrets of Jainism
Author(s): Nandighoshvijay
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

Previous | Next

Page 167
________________ 136 Scientific Secrets of Jainism According to modern mathematics tt = 3.141592653.... This shows that the value of it shown by Virasēnācārya is true upto six digits after the decimal point. There is no special reason why, in the Jain tradition, there are different values of it and different methods of finding the circumference and the area of a circle. Really speaking, the Jain philosophy is spiritualistic and its ultimate aim is salvation. In Jain scriptures we find the description of the form, shape etc. of the cosmos (Löka ) because they help in spiritual development. The form of Loka, i.e. universe, the form of the hell, the form of gods, the human world - the two and a half islands (dvipas) - the Jambūdvipa etc. are shown in order to enable us to know where and in what condition our soul is at present, in what condition it was in the past, and what condition it can have in the future. It is not inconsistent to believe that since the common people had no other use of this knowledge that at different times, with different sorts of people in view, these different methods were used in order to impart this knowledge to common people in simple way. This is why one finds different values of it in various Jain scriptures which are available today. Ācārya Śri virasēna shows that it = 355 / 113. The Indian mathematician Sri Ramanujan shows this value of it in a different way. He solved the problem of squaring the circle, the problem suggested by Greek mathematicians. As a result he got 355/113 as a value of t. This article is accompanied by a brief article on various values of . On reading it, one can pretty well understand the perplexity of it. Jain Time-cycle and Cosmic Calendar In the commentry on Laghusangrahaņisutra, Ācārya Śrī has given a detailed discription of the seven kşētras (regions) such as Bharata etc. as well as the time-cycle constituted 12 ārās exprienced in Bharata-ksētra and Airavatakņētra. It is possible that some may doubt whether the time-cycle is real. We shall, therefore, here think of it from the view-point of modern science. Let us first understand the divisions (ārās) of the time-cycle. The time-cycle has two chief divisions--Utsarpiņikāla and Avasarpiņikāla. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378