Scientific Secrets of Jainism

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

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Scientific Secrets of Jainism
lifeless in this way, the main purspose is defeated. Therefore, monks and nuns of Śvētāmbara idolatrous sect accept only thrice boiled lifeless water and it is called in sanskrit language 'acitta' (fa) i. e. lifeless water and in Jain canonical scriptural terminology it is called 'prāsuka' (r) i. e. lifeless.
There are some people who ask if ash or lime is the only remedy for making various kinds of water lifless sweet water of rainy season, collected in a small ditches, salty water of wells, purified water of the river Ganges etc., mineral water, hot sulphuric water of ditches and all kinds of water. They believe there should be different remedial things for various kinds of water. But it is their false notion.
Jain canonical scriptures show two possibilities how life-containing earth, water etc. become lifeless. When earth comes in contact with earth of different kind, both the kinds of earth become lifless. Both the kinds of earth destroy themselves. When water is poured into earth, both the water and the earth destroy each other and make each other lifeless. Ash is a defiled form (vikāra) of plant and lime is earth. Any kind of water can, therefore, be made lifeless by ash or lime. It should, therefore, not be doubted how the same substance makes all kinds of water lifeless.
Regarding the use of lifeless water, most of the laypersons use lifeless water only for drinking and for all other purposes they mostly use water that contains life. It is enough to tell them that there is lack of power of discrimination. Water is a mass of water-lives. Therefore, the least possible use should be made of water whether it contains lives or it is lifeless. For laypersons, water that contains lives is not absolutely forbidden. Therefore, there is no objection to drinking water that contains lives but from the view point of hygiene and physical science, it is most beneficial to drink lifeless water.
One of the well-established rules of the Jainism is that everyone should drink, if it is possible, lifeless water and for the laypersons who are practising penance and for the monks and nuns, there is no exception to this rule. According to Jain biology water itself is a living organism.
In the present times if a Jain monk or nun or one who is proficient in Jain philosophy or an odinary scientist is asked, "Why is it prescribed in the Jain religion to drink boiled water ?" they all will say that water itself is a living organism and there are various and numerous micro-organisms in it. It is