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12 : Sramaņa, Vol 62, No. 1 January-March 2011
and cannot evolve into Jaina Pure Lands unless significant doctrinal alterations are made. The question of how one can reach the Videhas and their Viharamāna Tīrthankara remains open. Rebirth is one possibility. Jains have both claimed to have been in the presence of Sīmandhara in a past life, and also that one can be reborn there. In the case of Kundakunda, it is said that he "visited" Videha and came back within one life. How can this be possible? One answer can be found in the doctrine of the five bodies. They include from the crude, physical body (audārika-śarīra) that we perceive in everyday life to the more fine and subtle ones that not everyone necessarily has. The third body, for instance, is known as the "projectile body" (āhāraka-Sarira) and it can only be created by certain ascetics through their practice, and this body can be used to travel long distances while the physical body remains still until one returns (Glasenapp 1999:195). There is also the concept of the vaikriya-samudghāta, which refers to a method of achieving the same type of body that heavenly beings have. The Āgama Bhagavati Sūtra? describes how the trained mendicant can travel long distances in such a body (Sikdar 1964: 459). Contemporary Jains have tried to harmonize such ideas with modern space travel, arguing that trained individuals can acquire a spiritual shield of sorts - not unlike "the shield" of a space shuttle - enabling them to travel into space (Mahaveer 2007 : 122-6). This interaction between Jaina doctrine as found in scriptures and modern science is the next topic to be discussed. Jáina cosmography as a contested area In the following I will suggest that cosmography is a contested area in contemporary Jainism. Modern Jains are generally highly educated, and hence very exposed to modern science and its claims to legitimacy. As a consequence Jains have become very eager to show how their religion and science complement each other. In fact, much of Jaina intellectual energy of today is invested in conjoining discoveries of modern science with certain ideas found in Jaina scriptures (Laidlaw 1995: 72). Both publications and conferences are initiated to this end and the idea of Jainism as being scientific is
