Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Comparison of loka and universe is comparing the facts told by an omniscient and the observations made by human beings with the help of scientific instruments. The observations of scientists bear the constraints imposed by physical instruments and the intelligence of the observer. Large amount of piece meal information gathered by separate individuals is put together to figure out the reality just like the parts of a jig saw puzzle are assembled to obtain the whole. An omniscient on the other hand sees the full reality as it exists and describes it in parts. An omniscient has the power to see a paramanu as well as the entire loka.
The description of loka given by lord Mahavira was mainly in the form of answers to queries made by his disciples. To describe the structure of loka to people, who did not have scientific knowledge of modern era, should obviously entail use of examples and simplifications for presenting the subject in a comprehensible form. The description is largely qualitative because a quantitative description is neither possible nor required for broad understanding of the loka. Terms like countable, countless, infinite were good enough to offer description of many of the features of loka.
The information given by lord Mahavira was passed on orally and committed to writing after many centuries. In the intervening period to what extent the information was preserved in its original form is not known. During this period the other philosophies developed in India perhaps influenced the writings of Jain Acharyas. So the description of loka as available in Jaina canons may be considered to be a mix of concepts and descriptions given by lord Mahavira, the contributions of the writer himself may be as exaggerations and imaginations, and the influence of other philosophies.
Our scientific knowledge of universe comes from observations as well as mathematical theories developed to explain the observations and the reality. Both these methods suffer from human limitations and so are expected to reveal some aspect and not the whole reality. It is possible to combine both the canonical and scientific information to arrive at a more realistic picture of loka. We make such an attempt here.
While interpreting distances given in Jaina canons the unit yojana must be carefully used. Term yojana has been used to measure distances on land as well as in space. A space yojana is 1000 times the land yojana in Swetambara canons and 500 tines the land yojana in Digambara canons. Thus the meaning of the same term yojana changes with context in which it is used.
