Muni Roop Chandra
Jaina Convention
Federation of Jain Associations In North America
The One Who Knows The One, Knows All
and The One Who Knows all, Knows the One
 Muni Roop Chandra Jain Ashram Roop Vihar, Ring Road, Opp. Saray Kale Khan New Delhi, 110013 Muni Roop Chandraji Maharaj was initiated under the Acharya Tulsi Sangh. He is the founder of ’Nav Terah Panth' and 'Manav Mandir Mission'and has authored over 15 books. He is a poet, writer and philosopher; and has walked over 35,000 miles bare foot in India and Nepal. |
I've heard it, the Blessed one, that the Lord Mahavir has said: "The One Who Knows The One, Knows All and The One Who Knows all, Knows the one".
What's this world like?
From time immemorial the people have been trying to know the outside world. From the dust particles to the Mountains, from the water-drop to the ocean, from the earth to the solar system, and beyond that the stellar system and beyond that the milky ways and the stars. Man has been curious to know them and have tried to work out a solution. Physics discovered 'atom' after having traversed through this infinite expanse, even reached the 'waves' and the 'event' across the ways. Across the events is the one that never happens. Science calls it 'the field'. This infinite region where the events are happening is bound by the inevitable law of cause and effect. And whatever man knows till now by that, that is the ultimate truth of physics. These events have a sequence. There are few equations in this sequence. These equations can be expressed through mathematical symbols. No difference is perceivable between the events and that which is happening. The one that is beyond happening can be the background of all events. Events are only possible when something is to happen. So, it is not at all possible to draw out a differentiating line between all that is happening and all that does not happen. The expanse from a particle of sand to the stars has now been limited to that 'One' by knowing whom all other things are known. This is the limit of physics. It knows only qualities and considers these essentials for substance. There cannot be substance without qualities and qualities without substance. It has been the assumption till now. These qualities are: weight, color, form, odors etc.
What's the weight of the substance?
It is known now what physics defines, as weight is the result of gravity. What weights 4 kg? On earth will only weigh 1 kg. On the moon. It is because gravity is four times less there. There is weightlessness in the space where there is no gravity. The cosmonauts have experienced it the first hand. They have, therefore, to use special instruments for physical and mental effects of gravity and have to undergo a specific training. Weight is not at all a quality of substance. Substance has no weight in itself. Weight is the effect of mutual attraction. That weight is of one matter fragment upon another fragment. Even that effect is reciprocal. The earth pulls man and man pulls the earth. It is a different thing that the earth is larger in size. Its gravitational force is higher in total quantity. That is why man cannot pull it but it can pull man as a larger magnet pulls the smaller one.
Discovery of atom changed the concept of color and form. With the nucleus even the form disappeared. In this process whatever was obtained could not be called matter according to a conventional definition. The source of matter is that which is not matter. That is only vacuum- 'Utter nothingness'- that which is empty fills up everything. That which has no shape-is amorphous- is behind all shapes. That which cannot be experienced through sense is the one that they have been experiencing. It seems to be a paradox. Laotse has very aptly observed that 'paradox is the language of truth.'
Pudgal: Attributes of Melting and Fusion
Mahavir defines Pudgal: that which melts and crumbles down, takes on forms. Defines the matter: the one, which contains GUNA (attributes) and Paryay (constant change). The statement is very simple. But it has been grasped after going through all complexities. Matter is that which has a form. It is created and destroyed constantly. Matter and form are two different things. The attributes of Form are not in the matter but only the matter has a Form. The attributes of the matter that the physical science takes up as reference; in fact, belong to the Form. They keep changing with the Form. They are not the attributes of the matter. Matter does not have any attribute. The aroma of the rose, the taste of a ripe fruit, the feel of a luxuriant grass, the malice notes of a musical instruments, the fascinating smile of Mona Lisa are all related to form. Form is not shape; though shape is a kind of form. Form is the ultimate end of the constant cycle of change. Change is a constant thing. So, form keeps changing. Form is an expression. The attribute is the medium of expression. There cannot be a form without attribute. There cannot be attributing without a form either. What the physicist perceives as the events of the unified field are also Form. That is expression too. Mahavir considers that too as Paryay-melting away-crumbling down, taking-changing of shapes come under Form, come under Paryay. Paryay is the product of matter, not the Matter itself. Meeting and crumbling is the consequence- end of Pudgal not the Pudgal itself. What is then Pudgal itself? What is matter? We do not Know. Science explores the mathematical equations only. These equations stop at Form only. Science does not look beyond that. It accepts that it cannot be known.
Divisions is in Matter, not in knowledge
At the conclusion of his ten-volume 'Synthetic System of all knowledge' Herbert Spencer has confessed that reality is unknowable. Mahavir says we do not have to stop at this point. Knowledge has infinite dimensions. Democritus could not go beyond atom. Enjoyment, Form, Odor and Touch are all in the atom. After establishing that he became silent. He had assumed that the atom was unbreakable and there was nothing else to be known after that. Einstein split the atom and gave the foundation of the nucleus - electron moving round the proton - a miniature solar system. Then it went farther than that from particles to wave and then quantum. Further than that-events. And now the theory is that of the unified field: thereby meaning that the whole universe- from the minutest to the largest-is an interrelated thing. Activities are forms too. Even they will be invaded. Even the field as a concept is a mental form. What is that in which exist all these but which is not all these. Mahavir says knowing of that is important. Once you have known that One then all other things will be known by themselves. The one who knows One, he knows all, the one who knows all, knows one. Know the cosmos, the nucleus will be known by itself. Division is in the Matter, not in Knowledge.