Jain Science and Spirituality
by Medhavi Jain | 2020 | 61,419 words
This essay studies the elements of Jainism and investigates how Jain science and philosophy can give the world answers to through science and spirituality. Instead of interpreting it as a confined, strict philosophy, it is shown that Jainism represents a path towards self-awakening through self-improvement....
3.1. Time (Introduction)
‘Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. Time is often referred to as the fourth dimension, along with the three spatial dimensions.’[1]
It may take one many years to understand the concept of space-time. In ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramhansa Yogananda, space-time was defined as:
‘the time taken by the smallest indivisible particle to cover the distance of its size.’
Hence time has to be one dimension when we talk about the three dimensions of space, which result into the four-dimensional space-time phenomenon.
The definition of the smallest unit of time in Jainendra Siddhanta Kosha is,
‘time taken by a paramanu to travel, with its minimum speed, to its adjoining paramanu, is samaya.’[2]
Here even the speed matters too.
And also,
‘the minimum period of a particular attribute of all substances is one samaya.’[3]
As change is the only constant in the cosmos, the beginning of a change starts from the smallest indivisible unit of time called samaya. Through crossing this only we learn, grow old, change our personas and so on.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time (Retrieved on 23/05/2017 @ 2:30 pm)
[2]:
JSK. Vol. 4. Tenth Edition. 2012. pp. 327
[3]:
JSK. Vol. 4. Tenth Edition. 2012. pp. 327