Tattvarthadhigamsutram Part 2

Author(s): Umaswati, Umaswami, Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Jivanchandra Sakarchandra

Page 65

INTRODUCTION
29
and final reabsorption of a real universe, while to some it is nothing but a. dream-like reality. To many a scientist the creation by the Will of God is unacceptable; the evolution of the cosmos is according to them based upon the eternal, unerring and self-adjusting laws of nature interacting between matter and energy. Thus we see that not only do the theologians differ in their opinions but as we shall see even the scientists propound different theories to account for the origin of the cosmos. For instance Laplace, a celebrated Mathematician of the 18th century resorted to an explanation technically known as the Nebular Hypothesis.
Physics and chemistry both agree in proclaiming that there is con
mass and that matter is indestructible. The well-known physicist Sir Oliver Lodge observes :
. “We may all fairly agree, I think, that whatever really and fundamentally exists, so far as bare existence is concerned be independent of time. It may go through many changes, and thus have a history; that is to say, must have definite time-relations, so far as its changes are concerned; but it can hardly be thought of as either going out of existence or as coming into existence, at any given period, though it may completely change its form and accidents; everything basal must have a past and a future of some kind or other, though any special concatenation of arrangement may have a date of origin and of destruction.” . With this may be compared the very definition of sat given in Tattvārtha (V. 29).
In this connection may be cited McDougall's Physiological psychology whereby the immortality of the soul is easily established. The modern experimental psychology is generally coming round to the view that the soul is a simple substance and as such deathless and immortal. In the words of Mr. C. R. Jain, Bar-at-Law "it is incapable of disintegration or of being destroyed, because what is not made up of parts cannot be pulled to pieces in any way." Thus, in the true self or soul there is no difference, no diversity, no meum and tuum.
It is well-known to students of modern Mathematics and Science that a new field has been opened by Professor Albert Einstein, the celebrated German physicist and Mathematician who has been prea
. 1. The present shape of the earth viz., an ellipsoid bulged out at the equator and flattened at the poles and the formation of the rings of Saturn are cited as the verification of this theory.