Dr. N.L. Kachhara
The scientific interpretation of paramanu and vargana has opened a new chapter in understanding the Jain philosophy. The atom in science is conceived, as the smallest fraction of matter but the paramanu of Jain philosophy is the smallest fraction of energy. The Jain paramanu, the real quantum of energy, is far too smaller than the quantum of energy, photon, assumed by science. It is the electromagnetic character of vargana that enables them to pervade the entire loka. Many new interpretations of vargana have become possible on account of its electromagnetic character. This new character brings Jain philosophy close to modern science. Science has discovered particles like quark but it still remains a mystery what makes the quark. The journey of science has been from gross to fine and it has gone to the level of quark. Jain philosophy starts from the ultimate particle paramanu and proceeds to describe the gross form of matter. Jain philosophy says that the fundamental constituent of nature is energy and paramanu is its ultimate unit. Paramanu makes up vargana and vargana make up the gross particles like quark, electron, etc. Jain philosophy presents the subtler form of matter which science has not discovered so far. The story of matter from quark and electron onward is known to science. Thus Jain philosophy and science together reveal the complete picture of the physical existence.
Jain philosophy also offers some explanation to puzzling questions like what is mass, why there are four fundamental forces, etc. Jain philosophy yet goes further and indicates the basic source of there forces. For this, think of formation of vargana. In the lower order vargana why should the paramanus cluster and why paramanu density should increase as we go up to higher order vargana? What holds the paramanus together and what packs them in space as number of paramanus in the vargana increases. Is there some kind of force, how so ever small, which produces an affinity between these quantum energy particles and becomes a cause for their concentration with increase in population? It may well be so. If this is so then this force, call it vargana force, is a prerequisite to emergence of other four fundamental forces, generated by process of bonding between paramanus. This vargana force can be assumed as the mother fundamental force from which originates the other four forces. If this is accepted, it would be a big scientific advancement.
Jain philosophy establishes that solar radiations possess mass. It also offers explanation to existence of so called vacuum energy. Perfect vacuum does not exis in space; the vargana are present everywhere. Hence the space is full of energy; call it vacuum energy or ether. Scientists have been going back and forth on the question of ether. Earlier a luminiferous either was proposed to find a medium of propagation of light and to satisfy the requirements of Maxwell's equations and Einstein's general relativity. Now some scientists believe that the ether is gravitational field or electromagnetic field, which can describe the quantum structure of the universe. Jain philosophy proudly says that the whole space is full of quantum energy, which, through formation of vargana, produces the elementary particles of the known matter.
One may ask the question how the karma body of an organism is formed. Why should karmas stay together in the form of a body? The karma body has been assumed to have as plasma like structure. The karman vargana lack this kind of structure and occur in loka in a free state. Do karman vargana of the karma body have some kind of bonding? Perhaps this might be so. The bonding of karma may mean that the karman vargana experience bonding to form karma. Bonding should produce the fundamental forces including gravity. However, the gravitational effect is likely to be negligible as karman vargana are infinitely smaller than GMV. The karma shall have strong and weak bonds depending on the bonding of positive and negative karman vargana. This may impart karma varying life; strongly bond karma lasting for more duration than weakly bond karma. The karmas, now, have eight- touch and violate the assumption made earlier that lower order vargana have four- touch. So we must relax our assumption to that extent and say that the lower order vargana are four- touch energy in the free state, they may become eight- touch in the body of a living organism. The higher order varganas are always eight- touch type.
It appears that the karma body cannot live without the gross body for more than 3-4 'samaya', the maximum time taken by the soul to transit from one body to another on death. It means that the gross body has some role in holding the karma body in place and giving it a shape. This may be due to electromagnetic attraction between the gross body and karma body on account electromagnetic nature of both the bodies. This may also be a reason for karma body to conform to the size of gross body, as it grows right from the time of conception. Once outside the gross body the karma body on its own cannot retain the shape for long and so the soul immediately enters the next body, which at that time is in the form of a single cell.
The power of Jain philosophy is evident from vargana analysis. It is the beauty of versatile Jain philosophy that it can deal with the phenomena of physical world as well as the living world with equal authority.
