Dr. N.L. Kachhara
A relationship between order/disorder and quality of life can be established. Forests are order producing systems for they receive thermal energy from sunlight and convert it into chemical and electrical energy with the help of nutrients. As chemical and electrical systems are better ordered than thermal systems, plants produce order from disorder. Burning of fuel converts chemical energy into thermal energy and increases disorder. Atomic energy power plants convert electrical bonding energy into thermal energy and also increase disorder. A forest based life style where all requirements of living beings are met from forests conserves order in the environment. From this consideration animals do not contribute to disorder. Human beings burning fuel produce disorder the magnitude of which increases with increasing rate of burning fuel. Industrialization, using fossil fuels and atomic energy, increases disorder, a higher disorder must be associated with a low quality of life and vice versa.
Jain philosophy describes in detail the quality of life in the universe. There are two types of lands in the universe, the lands of enjoyment where the life is forest based, and lands of action where the living beings employ various kinds of skills for living, which may involve burning of fuel. The lands of action are found only in that part of universe which is inhabited by human beings, and human beings are found only in a small part of the universe, which is comprised of Jambudweepa and two more similar regions in the neighborhood. Jambudweepa and these two lands have not been identified in the modern context but in my opinion they are our Milky Way Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and a part of Triangulum Galaxy. In this part of universe there are 15 lands of action and our planet is one of them. This means that there are 15 planets or regions in the universe, 3 in Milky Way Galaxy and 6 each in Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxy, where human beings employ advanced skills for living. Most of the lands of action maintain a constant standard of quality of life, at different levels, but there are few others, like our Earth, which experience a temporal cyclic change in the quality of life. We are presently passing through the descending phase of the quality cycle that is the quality of life is going down. This means that disorder must be increasing on our planet, a fact that cannot be disputed. This downward trend is supposed to continue for about 40,000 years when the disorder shall reach the maximum level and the quality of life shall be at a minimum level. Thereafter a reversal in the trend shall occur and disorder shall start decreasing, eventually producing conditions for better quality of life.
In those lands of action which maintain a given quality of life, the human beings must be wiser not indulging in activities that increase disorder. As stated above human beings are found only in a small part of the universe, in the remaining part only animals are supposed to exist, where life must be forest based producing no disorder. Thus the scenario which emerges is that in most part of the universe the living systems produce no disorder, only the physical systems may disturb the balance of order and disorder. As the physical systems involve electrical and chemical processes, besides thermal, there is a good possibility of order/disorder being maintained at a constant level on a galactic scale.
From above we see that Jain philosophy allows for local variation in disorder, as we find on Earth, but that should not be a matter of alarm as far as the universe is concerned. The universe being endless maintains a stable condition of order/disorder and life is respectfully maintained on a continuous basis.
