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ANCIENT SCRIPTURES VS. CONTEMPORARY WESTERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Contemporary Reflections on Ancient Jain Thought:
Truth Rediscovered in Ancient Scriptures.
By: Niraj Shah & Biren Mehta
The aspect of science which finds intuitive appeal in our society is the objective rationality attributed to it. Scientific principles, therefore, are deemed as the most objective means of rational measurement and serve as the most popularly accepted standard for testing "truths" against. Consequently, if any philosophy can pass the test of science, it must be acknowledged as sound rationale. Because Jainism is comprised of a multitude of age-old principles that can be correlated with modern day scientific thought, and has its foundations in a philosophy that supersedes modern scientific thought, modern philosophical thought, and modern mathematical thought, most intelligent people who are introduced to Jain philosophy are awed by the intricate and intellectually advanced knowledge it contains.
A Recapitulation of Jain Philosophy and Its Views on Omniscient knowledge
According to Jain philosophy, when a soul inhabiting a human life is sufficiently pure', it attains various levels of supernatural knowledge with complete omniscience at its pinnacle. Omniscience consists of knowing all facets of the past, present, and future of absolutely everything?. Such omniscience cannot even be effectively conceived by our mortal minds, but certainly some of its consequences can. If a soul is pure enough to have this type of omniscience, then it is destined for liberation at the conclusion of that particular human life. It is difficult for our mortal minds to fathom such omniscience® because our natural inclinations are to measure it with our undeveloped measures of logic, popular philosophy, and science - all of which are empirical forms of knowledge This method of measuring omniscience, as many Jain scholars say, is analogous to measuring the vast reaches of the universe with mere rulers and simple telescopes: it is theoretically possible but not feasible.
Between the attainment of omniscience and the death of the human body, a person who has attained omniscience can share his/her knowledge with society as he/she sees it fit to do so. An analysis of the content and extent of extremely advanced thought contained in ancient Jain scriptures can give us a remote idea of the reliability of this knowledge and will give rise to greater credibility being attributed to Jain philosophy. Most Jain scriptures have been lost, but by analyzing what little has been salvaged we can realize the authority and truth they command. It is interesting to note that from what has been salvaged of ancient Jain scriptures, we have found knowledge that is just beginning to be discovered by western methods of logic, science, and philosophy. In short, with the few Jain scriptures we have managed to salvage, theories of logic, physics, chemistry, and popular philosophy have all been found delineated in these scriptures. These scriptures range from over 2000 years old to the present day, but this knowledge has
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