Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
Anaximander (c. 610 - 546 B.C.)
Anaximander called the ultimate reality as Apeiron meaning "the undefined infinite."
The primary substance, the apeiron, was eternal and unlimited in extension. It was not
composed of any known elements and it possessed eternal motion (i.e., a soul).
He was an early proponent of science, and is sometimes considered to be the first
true scientist, and to have conducted the earliest recorded scientific experiment. He
is often considered the founder of astronomy, and he tried to observe and explain
different aspects of the universe and its origins, and to describe the mechanics of
celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. He made important contributions to cosmology,
physics, geometry, meteorology and geography as well as to Metaphysics.
He judged that, although not directly perceptible to us, the only substance which could
explain all the opposites he saw around him, is what he called "apeiron" ( translated
as "the infinite", "the boundless", etc), an endless, unlimited primordial mass, subject
to neither old age nor decay, that perpetually yielded fresh materials from which
everything we perceive is derived. The Universe originates in the separation of
opposites in this primordial matter, and dying things are merely returning to the
boundless element from which they came. He saw the universe as a kind of organism,
supported by "pneuma" (cosmic breath).
Anaximander is sometimes called the "Father of Cosmology" and the founder of
astronomy for his bold use of non-mythological explanations of physical processes.
He was the first to conceive a mechanical model of the world, in which the Earth floats
very still in the centre of the infinite, not supported by anything. He envisioned the
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