Selected Speeches of V R Gandhi

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi Godiji Jain Derasar Mumbai
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/002018/1

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Selected Speeches of Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi A Great Bharatiya Philosopher at the Congress of World Religions For Private Personal use only

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24 s PIS i gauna Acharya Shri Vijayavallabhsuri Maharaj

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Shri Vallabhsuri Jaina Literature Series No. 10 Selected Speeches of Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi A Great Bharatiya Philosopher at the Congress of World Religions FOREWORD Shri Abheraj H. Baldota B. A., LL.] LIFE SKETCH Shri Hiralal H. Dalal B. A., Bar-at-Law Shri Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi Godiji Jain Upashraya, Pydhonie

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May 1964, 3000 Copies Price : Rupee One Printed by V. P. Bhagwat at Mouj Printing Bureau, Khatau Wadi, Bombay 4. Published by Jagjivandas Shivlal Shah and Umedmalji Hajarimalji, Hon. Secretaries, Shree Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi, Godiji Jain Upashraya, Pydhonie, Bombay 3.

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Dedicated To The ennobling ideals and preachings of Pujyapad Vijayanandsuri (Atmaramji) Maharaj, a versatile scholar saint, author of Chicago Prasnottar and other learned treatises, who deputed Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi to the Congress of World Religions in 1893 A.D. on his behalf.

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FOREWORD Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi was a great exponent of Indian culture and religion, besides being a brilliant scholar of Jainism. His speeches at the Congress of World Religions held in 1893 A.D. in Chicago and other places in the United States and Europe echoed the true spirit and culture of India. The birth centenary of this outstanding celebrity is on 25th August, 1964. The memories sharpen, inspire or fade into oblivion. The deeds of great men always inspire the young; the fragrance never fades; it needs no rekindling. Shri Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi has rightly decided to publish this booklet at the most appropriate juncture, bearing some of the speeches and bare outline of the life of Shri Virchand Gandhi. This will inspire the younger generation and rekindle in them the lofty ideas which the late Shri Virchand Gandhi preached and stood for. He died so young. It is aptly said that "Those whom gods love, die young'. This has been true of Shri Virchandbhai, Swami Vivekananda, Shrimad Rajchandra and others. His erudite speeches touched all aspects of Indian culture and its philosophies. He accepted high ideals of all religions and in his concluding memorable speech at the Congress of World Religions, he cited an interesting example of an elephant and seven blind men. Shri Virchandbhai concluded by saying, "Brothers and Sisters, I entreat you to hear the moral of this story and learn to examine iii

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the various religious systems from all standpoints". I am sure that the publishers will feel very happy and their efforts rewarded if this small publication brings the readers nearer to the ennobling life and ideals of the late Shri Virchand Gandhi. ABHERAJ H. BALDOTA Bombay May 14, 1964

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PREFACE It is our great pleasure to provide herein glimpses of our great philosopher and exponent of Indian culture, Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. The late Acharya Shri Vijayanandsuri (popularly known as Atmaramji) Maharaj was a great scholar of Jainism. His erudition drew the attention of scholars outside India. He was invited to attend the Congress of World Religions held in Chicago in 1893 A.D. The rules of conduct of Jaina sadhus prevented the learned Acharya from going to Chicago, but he did not want that Jainism should remain unrepresented. This prompted him to depute Shri Virchand Gandhi to fulfil his mission. This Congress held more than 70 years before has remained unique and unparalleled in the history of the religions of the world from the point of view of extensive representation and the galaxy of world scholars, who participated in the high level of discussion. Born in Mahuva, the then obscure place in Saurashtra, he took primary and secondary education at Bhavnagar, when the knowledge of three R's even was considered very complimentary and dignified. After passing the Matriculation Examination, he joined the Elphinstone College, Bombay and graduated with Honours. Short brief sketch included herein provides fuller details. It is a happy coincidence that his life sketch has been written by Shri H. H. Dalal, B.A., Bar-at-Law, who is now Jt. Hon. Secretary of the Jain Association of India, of which Shri Virchand Gandhi had the unique pri

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vilege of being its first Hon. Secretary. It fell on Shri Gandhi to give a dynamic shape to the constitution of the Association with the result that the activities multiplied and the Association became a cynosure of all ameliorative activities. Shri Virchand Gandhi's life was full of incidents and events, which were rare even in the life of great personages of those times. His life mirrored many thoughts; his indomitable spirit, his inspiring zeal, and the special niche he created in the millions of hearts in America and Europe, are the fountain source of inspiration to the old and the young, irrespective of any faith. His birth centenary is on the 25th August, 1964. On this memorable day, let us gather together to celebrate the centenary of this great dedicated soul in a fitting way to provide the younger and coming generations an objective lesson of scholarship, devotion, tolerance and selfless sacrifice. Shri Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi was started nearly eight years before with the laudable object of publishing small booklets on Jainism. The revered Acharya Shri Vijaysamudrasuri Maharaj and the well-known orientalist and an authority on Jaina Agamas, Agam Prabhakar, Shri Punyavijayji Maharaj have offered valuable suggestions in the implementation of the scheme of publication. To both of them, we bow in reverence, Since the last publication, Nidhi lost Shri Sobhagmalji Singhi, one of its erstwhile members. Shri Singhi edited the last book of the series. Nidhi feels happy in having a foreword by a vi

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well-known social worker, Shri Abheraj H. Baldota, B.A., LL.B., the President of All-Jain Swetamber Conference and many other educational and social institutions. We thank Shri Vishnu P. Bhagwat of Mouj Printing Bureau for excellent printing and Shri Damle for carefully reading the proofs of this booklet. The Jain Association of India associates itself with the objects of the publishers and as a token of goodwill and appreciation, they have contributed Rs. 1,000/- towards the cost of this publication. We thank the Jain Association of India for this excellent gesture of mutual co-operation for laudable aims and objects. We thank our numerous donors and well-wishers for helping and furthering the cause, espoused by the great Acharya whose name is associated with the Nidhi. Akshaya Tritiya 14-5-1964 JAGJIVANDAS SHIVLAL SHAH UMEDMALJI HAJARIMALJI Hon. Secretaries Shri Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi vii

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Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi, B.A., Bar-at-Law Our representative to the World Congress of Religions held in Chicago in 1893.

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Shri Virchand Gandhi, Swami Vivekanand at the World Congress of Religions, Chicago, 1893.

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SHRI VIRCHAND GANDHI'S SPEECH AT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS HELD IN CHICAGO, 1893 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will not trouble you with a long speech. I, like my respected friends, Mr. Muzumdar and others, come from India, the mother of religions. I represent Jainism, a faith older than Buddhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different from it in its psychology, and professed by a million and a half of India's most peaceful and law-abiding citizens. You have heard so many speeches from eloquent members, and I shall speak later on at some length. I will, at present, only offer on behalf of my community and their high priest, Muni Atmaramji, whom I especially represent here, our sincere thanks for the kind welcome you have given us. This spectacle of the learned leaders of thought and religion meeting together on a common platform, and throwing light on religious problems, has been the dream of Atmaramji's life. He has commissioned me to say to you that he offers his most cordial congratulations on his own behalf, and on behalf of the Jaina community, for your having achieved the consummation of that grand idea, of convening a Parliament of Religions. I wish that the duty of addressing you on the history and the tenets of the Jaina faith had fallen on that able person than on me. The inclemency of the climate, and the distant voyage which one has

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to undertake before one can come here, have prevented that able Jaina from attending this grand assembly and personally presenting to you the religious convictions of the Jainas. You will, therefore, look upon me as simply the mouthpiece of Muni Atmaramji, the learned high priest of the Jainas in India, who has devoted his whole life to the study of that ancient faith. I am truly sorry that Muni Atmaramji is not among us to take charge of the duty of addressing you. 1. Jainism has two ways of looking at things --one called the Dravyarthikanaya and the other the Paryayarthikanaya. I shall illustrate the same. The production of a law is the production of something not previously existing, if we think of it from the latter point of view, i.e., as a Paryaya or modification; while it is not the production of something not previously existing, if we look at it from the former point of view, i.e., as a Dravya or substance. According to the Dravyarthikanaya view the universe is without beginning and without end, but according to the Paryayarthikanaya view we have creation and destruction at every moment. The Jaina canon may be divided into two parts: first, sruta Dharma, i.e., philosophy, and second, Caritra Dharma, i.e., ethics. The sruta Dharma inquires into the nature of nine principles, six kinds of living beings and four states of existence-sentient beings, non-sentient things, merit, demerit. Of the nine principles, the first is 'soul. According to the Jaina view 'soul'

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on is that element which knows, thinks and feels. It is in fact the divine element in the living being. The Jaina thinks that the phenomena of knowledge, feeling, thinking and willing are conditioned something, and that that something must be as real as anything can be. This 'soul' is in a certain sense different from knowledge and in another sense identical with it. So far as one's knowledge is concerned the soul is identical with it, but so far as some one else's knowledge is concerned it is different from it. The true nature of the soul is right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. The soul, so long as it is subject to transmigration, is undergoing evolution and involution. The second principle is non-soul. It is not simply what we understand by matter, but is more than that. Matter is a term contrary to 'soul'. But nonsoul is its contradictory. Whatever is not soul is non-soul. The rest of the nine principles are but the different states produced by the combination and separation of soul and non-soul. The third principle is merit that on account of which a being is happy. The fourth principle is demerit: that on account of which a being suffers from misery. The fifth is the state which brings in merit and demerit. The sixth is Samvara: that which stops the inflow of foreign energies. The seventh is destruction of actions. The eighth is bondage of soul, with actions. The ninth is total and permanent freedom of soul from all actions. Division of Substance: Substance is divided into 3

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the sentient, or conscious, matter, Dharmastikaya (fulcrum of motion), Adharmastikaya (fulcrum of stability or rest), stability, space and time. Six kinds of living beings are divided into six classes, earth body beings, water body beings, fire body beings, wind body beings, vegetables, and all of them having one organ of sense, that of touch. These are again divided into four classes of beings: beings having two organs of sense, those of touch and of taste, such as tapeworms, leeches, etc.; beings having three organs of sense, those of taste, touch and smell, such as ants, lice, etc.; beings having four organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell and sight, such as bees, scorpions, etc.; beings having five ogans of sense, those of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. These last are human beings, animals, birds, men and gods. All these living beings have four, five or six of the following capacities: capacity of taking food, capacity of constructing body, capacity of constructing organs, capacity of respiration, capacity of speaking and capacity of thinking. Beings having one organ of sense, that is, of touch, have the first five capacities, while those having five organs have all the six capacities. The Jaina canonical book treats very elaborately of the minute divisions of the living beings, and their prophets have long before the discovery of the microscope been able to tell how many organs of sense the minutest animalcule has. I would refer those who are desirous of studying Jaina biology, zoology, botany, anatomy and philosophy to the many books published by our society. 4

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I shall now refer to the four states of existence. They are naraka, tiryac, manusya and deva. Naraka is the lowest state of existence, that of being a denizen of hell; tiryac is the next, that of having an earth body, water body, fire body, wind body, vegetable, of having two, three or four organs, animals and birds. The third is manusya, of being a man; and the fourth is deva, that of being a denizen of the celestial world. The highest state of existence is the Jaina Moksa, the apotheosis in the sense that the mortal being by the destruction of all Karma attains the highest spiritualism, and the soul being severed from all connection with matter regains its purest state and becomes divine. Having briefly stated the principal articles of Jaina belief, I come to the grand questions the answers to which are the objects of all religious inquiry and the substance of all creeds. What is the origin of the universe ? This involves the question of God. Gautama, the Buddha, forbids inquiry into the beginning of things. In the Brahmanical literature bearing on the constitution of cosmos frequent reference is made to the days and nights of Brahma, the periods of Manvantara and the periods of Pralaya. But the Jainas, leaving all symbolical expressions aside, distinctly reaffirm the view previously promulgated by the previous hierophants, that matter and soul are eternal and cannot be created. You can affirm existence of a thing from one point of view, deny it from another and affirm both existence and non-existence with reference to it at different times. If you should

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think of affirming both existence and non-existence at the same time from the same point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be spoken of. Under certain circumstances, the affirmation of existence is not possible ; similarly, of non-existence and also of both. What is meant by these seven modes is that a thing should not be considered as existing everywhere at all times, in all ways, and in the form of everything. It may exist in one place and not in another at one time. It is not meant by these modes that there is no certainty, or that we have to deal with probabilities only as some scholars have taught. Even the great Vedantist Sankaracarya has possibly erred when he says that the Jainas are agnostics. All that is implied is that every assertion which is true is true only under certain conditions of substance, space, time, etc. This is the great merit of the Jaina philosophy, that while other philosophies make absolute assertions, the Jaina looks at things from all standpoints, and adapts itself like a mighty ocean in which the sectarian rivers merge themselves. What is God, then ? God, in the sense of an extra cosmic personal creator, has no place in the Jaina philosophy. It distinctly denies such creator as illogical and irrelevant in the general scheme of the universe. But it lays down that there is a subtle essence underlying all substances, conscious as well as unconscious, which becomes an eternal cause of all modifications, and is termed God. The doctrine of the transmigration of soul, or

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the reincarnation, is another grand idea of the Jaina philosophy. The companion doctrine of transmigration is the doctrine of Karma. The Sanskrit of the word Karma means action. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" and "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" are but the corollaries of that most intricate law of Karma. It solves the problem of the inequality and apparent injustice of the world. The Karma in the Jaina philosophy is divided into eight classes : Those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth ; those which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those which give one pleasure or pain, and those which produce bewilderment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely that a student of Jaina Karma philosophy can trace any effect to a particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully and so clearly the doctrine of Karma. Persons who, by right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, destroy all Karma and thus fully develop the nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection; become divine and are called Jinas. Those Jinas who, in every age, preach the law and establish the order, are called Tirthankaras. 2. I now come to the Jaina ethics, which direct conduct to be so adapted as to insure the fullest development of the soul-the highest happiness, that is the goal of human conduct, which is the ultimate 7

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end of human action. Jainism teaches to look upon all living beings as upon oneself. What then is the mode of attaining the highest happiness? The sacred books of the Brahmanas prescribe devotion and Karma. The Vedanta indicates the path of knowledge as the means to the highest. But Jainism goes a step farther and says that the highest happiness is to be obtained by knowledge and religious observances. The five Mahavratas or great commandments for Jaina ascetics are : Not to kill, i.e., to protect all life; not to lie ; not to take that which is not given ; to abstain from sexual intercourse; to renounce all interest in worldly things, especially to call nothing one's own. Classes in Jaina Philosophy Once the whole civilized world embraced this doctrine. Many philosophers have upheld it. Scientists like Flammarion, Figuier and Brewster have advocated it. Theologians like Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. The Bible and sacred literature of the east are full of it, and it is today accepted by the majority of the world's inhabitants. People are talking of design in nature. But what does the idea of design lead to ? Design means contrivance, adaptation of means to an end. But the necessity of contrivance, the need of employing means, is a consequence of the limitation of power. Who would have recourse to means if to attain his end his mere word was sufficient ?

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But how shall we reconcile God's infinite benevolence and justice with his infinite power, when we look around and see that some of his creatures are born happy and others miserable? Why is he so partial ? Where is the moral responsibility of a person having no incentive to lead a virtuous life? The problem of injustice and misery which broods over our world can only be explained by the doctrine of reincarnation and Karma, to which I am presently coming. That the soul is immortal is doubted by very few. It is an old declaration that whatsoever begins in time must end in time. You cannot say that the soul is eternal on one side of its earthly period without being so in the other. If the soul sprang into existence specially for this life, why should it continue afterwards? The ordinary idea of creation at birth involves the correlative of annihilation at death. Moreover, it does not stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul enters this world for its first and all physical existence, and then merges into an endless spiritual eternity. The more reasonable education is that it has passed through many lives and will have to pass through many more before it reaches its ultimate goal. But it is directed that we have no memory of past lives. Can anyone recall his childhood ? Has anyone a memory of that wonderful epoch-infancy? Answers to the Critics of Hinduism In Sunday night's session Rev. George F. Pente

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cost of London, speaking on "The Present Outlook of Religions", cast reflections upon the chastity of the women who serve in the temples of India. It is said that if he had followed his manuscript he would not have made the most pointed of these statements, but he digressed somewhat from what he had written. As a result, Mr. Gandhi considered it necessary to reply to this attack as follows: "Before proceeding with my address, I wish to make a few observations. This platform is not a place for mutual recriminations, and I am heartily sorry that from time to time a most un-Christian spirit is allowed free scope here, but I know how to take these recriminations at their proper value, I am glad that no one has dared to attack the religion I represent. It is well that they should not. But every attack has been directed to the abuses existing in our society. And I repeat now what I repeat every day, that these abuses are not from religion, but in spite of religion, as in every other country. "Some men in their ambition think that they are Pauls, and what they think they believe. These new Pauls go to vent their platitudes upon India. They go to India to convert the heathens in a mass, but when they find their dreams melting away, as dreams always do, they return to pass a whole life in abusing the Hindu. Abuses are not arguments against any religion, nor self-adulation the proof of the truth of one's own. For such I have greatest pity. There are a few Hindu temples in Southern India where women-singers are employed to sing on 10

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certain occasions. Some of them are of dubious character, and the Hindu saciety feels it and is trying its best to remove the evil, but to call these "priestesses because they are prostitutes" and "prostitutes because they are priestesses" is a statement which differs as much from truth as darkness from light. These women are never allowed to enter the main body of the temple, and as for their being priestesses, there is not one woman priestess from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. "If the present abuses in India have been produced by the Hindu religion, the same religion had the strength of producing a society which made the Greek historian say: 'No Hindu was ever known to tell an untruth, no Hindu woman ever known to be unchaste.' And even in the present day where is there a more chaste woman or a milder man than in India ? The Oriental bubbles may be pricked, but the very hysterical shrieks sent forth from this platform from time to time show to the world that sometimes bubbles may be heavier than the blated balloons of vanity and self-conceit "I am very, very sorry for those who criticize the great ones of India, and my only consolation is that all their information about them has come from third-hand, fourth-hand sources, percolating through layers of superstition and bigotry. To those who think that in the refusal of the Hindu to criticize the character of Jesus is a tacit acceptation of the superiority of the fanatical nil admirari cult they represent, I am tempted to quote the old fable of AEsop, and tell them: 'Not to you I bend the knee, 11

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but to the image you are carrying on your back,' and point out to them one page from the life of the great Emperor Akbar. "A certain ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims was going to Mecca. On its way a Portuguese vessel captured it. Amongst the booty were some copies of the Koran. The Portuguese hanged these copies of the Koran (Kuran) around the necks of dogs, and paraded these dogs through the streets of Ormuz. It happened that this very Portuguese ship was captured by the emperor's men, and in it were found copies of the Bible. The love of Akbar for his mother is well-known--and his mother was a zealous Mohammedan, and it pained her very much to hear the treatment of the sacred book of the Mohammedans in the hands of the Christians, and she wanted Akbar to do the same with the Bible. But this great man replied : 'Mother, these ignorant men do not know the value of the Koran, and they treated it in a manner which is the outcome of ignorance. But I know the glory of the Koran and the Bible both, and I cannot degenerate myself in the way they did.'" Mr. Virchand Gandhi was then presented by Dr. Barrows as one whom he had come to esteem greatly as a guest in his own household. Mr. Gandhi was greeted with much applause as he came forward to speak. He said : Are we not all sorry that we are parting so soon? Do we not wish that this Parliament would 12

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last seventeen times seventeen days? Have we not heard with pleasure and interest the speeches of the learned representatives on this platform ? Do we not see that the sublime dream of the organizers of this unique Parliament has been more than realized ? If you will only permit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love, I shall only ask you to look at the multifarious ideas presented to you in a liberal spirit, and not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven blind men did in the elephant story. Once upon a time in a great city an elephant was brought with a circus. The people had never seen an elephant before. There were seven blind men in the city who longed to know what kind of an animal it was, so they went together to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands on the ears, another on the legs, a third one on the tail of the elephant, and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an animal the elephant was, one of the blind men said, "Oh, to be sure, the elephant is like a big winnowing fan." Another blind man said, "No, my dear sir, you are wrong. The elephant is more like a big, round post." The third, "You are quite mistaken ; it is like a tapering stick." The rest of them gave also their different opinions. The proprietor of the circus stepped forward and said : "My friends, you are all mistaken. You have not examined the elephant from all sides. Had you done so you would not have taken one-sided views." Brothers and sisters, I entreat you to hear the moral of this story and learn to examine the various S. S. 2 13

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religious systems from all standpoints. I now thank you from the bottom of my heart for the kindness with which you have received us and for the liberal spirit and patience with which you have heard us. And to you, Rev. Dr. Barrows and President Bonney, we owe the deepest gratitude for the hospitality which you have extended to us.

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PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF JAINAS "While granting due credit to Hindu metaphysics and the mysticism of the Orient in general, we are yet inclined to look for the development of a Western Psychology that will harmonize with the conditions of life in the Occident, at the same time tending to promote the spiritual welfare of the race as a whole." This statement seems to whisper in my ears that "Hindu" metaphysics has not been able to offer the right solution of the various intricate problems of life that are staring in the face of the Western thinker. By "Hindu" is meant, of course, the special phase of Vedanta philosophy that has been presented to the people of the West during the last four years I am glad that the truth in Vedanta has come to the shores of this country. It would have been much better, however, if the whole truth lying back of the different sectarian systems of India had been presented, so that a complete instead of a partial view of India's wisdom might have satisfied the craving of deep students. But the history of the religious and philosophic progress of the world shows that sectarianism takes a long time to be transmuted into universalism, and so we shall have to wait. Besides "Hindu" or Vedic metaphysics, there are systems in India not based on the Vedas and Upanisads, and are therefore classed as heterodox by the Vedists, who, however, it must be admitted to their credit, do not consign them to the "uncovenanted mercies of God", as some Christian sects have 15

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done. These are the Buddhist and the Jaina systems. Much has been written and spoken on Buddhism, but very little on Jainism. In this article, therefore, I intend to present a short sketch of the latter, in the hope that Hindu metaphysics may receive proper consideration in the Occident. 'Jaina' means a follower of Jina, which is a generic term applied to those persons (men and women) that have conquered the lower nature passion, hatred, and the like and brought into prominence the highest. The Jaina philosophy, therefore, bases its doctrine on the absolute necessity (for the realization of truth) of conquering the lower nature. To the underdeveloped or insufficiently developed observer, it is the conquering of the lower nature ; to the fully developed, it is the realization of the perfect. There lived many such Jinas in the past, and many will doubtless yet be born. The philosophy of the Jainas, therefore is not essentially founded on any particular writing or external revelation, but on the unfoldment of spiritual consciousness, which is the birthright of every soul. Books, writings, and scriptures may illustrate, wholly or in part, this truth; but the ultimate fact remains that no mere words can give full expression to the truths of Jainism, which must be felt and realized within. I have been often asked, "What is the origin of the universe, according to the Jaina view ?" We might as well ask : What is the origin of Being ? What is the source of God ? etc. Philosophy in the primitive state (logically, not chronologically) postu 16

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lates an external, simple substance from which it attempts to explain the multiplicity of the complex. Philosophy in this sense assumes various forms. All of them attempt to interpret the law of causation, and in that attempt many, fatigued after the long mental strain, stop at some one thing, element, or principle (physical or metaphysical) beyond which they have not mentally the ability to go. Some (for instance, the Ionic philosophers) called it water, fire, or air. The Sankhya philosophy, in India, tried to explain evolution and even cosmic consciousness and the growth of organs, etc., as proceeding from the simple substance called Prakrti, or primordial matter. Modern science evolves all life from the simple protoplasm. In tracing every effect to a cause, when these philosophers stop at something they contradict themselves by not extending and applying the law of causation to what they call the "first principle". Dr. Paul Deussen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel, in Germany, very truly says, with reference to Causality ("Elements of Metaphysics"'). "As space and time are without limits, so also the net of causality is necessarily without beginning or end," and he gives the following demonstration : "(a) If it were not without beginning, we should have to assume a first state of things. In order that this state might develop, a change would have to occur in it, which change would itself again be the effect of a foregoing change," etc.* * This is the rock on which splits the cosmological argument, which confounds the metaphysical principle of salvation (God) with the physical principle of creation. 17

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"(b) The chain of causality is without end, inasmuch as no change can take place at any time without proceeding as an effect from its sufficient cause." Jaina philosophy, therefore, is not the doctrine of illusion, nor of emanation, nor of creation. It is rather the doctrine that teaches the inexpugnability of various properties inextricably combined in a thing. Hence, the affirmation of only one property would be true so far as one side of the question is concerned ; but it becomes false when it rejects other sides-implying thereby that the very existence of that particular side depends on the existence of other sides. Jainism emphasizes at the same time the fact that at any particular moment it is impossible to express in words this complexity of truth (though possible to realize it in consciousness), for words always take for expression more moments than one. This teaching is also known as the doctrine of manysidedness (achats). For instance, the universe is eternal as well as non-eternal. If the manifestations, modifications, developments, and activities are left out of consideration, what remains of the universe is eternal. If merely those modifications, etc., are taken into consideration, that side of the universe (which is not a different thing from the universe, but only a different aspect) is noneternal. That is the only way of coming to a correct understanding and definite knowledge. Sankaracarya, commentator of the Vedantasutras, has fallen into a great error when he states 18

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that the Jaina doctrine should not be accepted because "it is impossible that contradictory attributes, such as being and non-being, should at the same time belong to one and the same thing ; just as observation teaches us that a thing cannot be hot and cold at the same moment." The Jainas do not teach that a thing can be hot and cold at the same moment. But they do teach that a thing cannot be hot absolutely and cannot be cold absolutely ; it is hot under certain definite circumstances, and cold under others. The Jainas do not teach that being and non-being (of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the same thing. What they teach is that in a thing there is being (of itself) and non-being (of other things), which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what it is not. Sankara, in fact, creates a man of straw, imputes to him certain imaginary doctrines, and by refuting them he knocks him down. That is his glory. Let us now see what the Jainas have to say about the Vedic systems of philosophy. Gunaratna Suri, the commentator of a Jaina work on "Comparative Philosophy", says : "Although the various schools of philosophy, through sectarian bigotry, differ from and contradict one another, still there are certain aspects of truth in them which would harmonize if they were joined [into an organic whole]. For instance, the Buddhists advocate momentariness of things; the Sankhyas maintain eternality ; Naiyyayikas and Vaisesikas believe in independent eternalities and non-eternal 19

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ities, being and non-being, community and difference, and eternality of the Word. The Mimansakas affirm eternality and non-eternality, separateness and identity, being and non-being, community and difference, and the eternality of the Word. Some postulate either Time, Nature, Necessity, Karma, or Purusa as the origin of the Universe ; and the Monists, who advocate the doctrine of Word-BrahmaGnosis, believe in their identity. The different aspects of truth accepted by these sectarians, when related to one another, all together become one grand truth ; but, if they do not join hands, they contradict one another, and in so doing they are changed into the flower of the sky' (which is not a real thing, but an illusion of the mind]." The Jaina philosophy teaches that the universe -the totality of realities-is infinite in space and eternal in time; but the same universe, considered from the standpoint of the manifestations of the different realities, is finite in space and non-eternal in time. Particular parts of the universe have their cyclic laws corresponding to the laws of evolution and involution. At certain periods Arhats, or great Masters (Saviours of mankind), are born, who through love, sacrifice of the lower nature (not of the real Self), and wisdom, teach the true doctrine. Referring to that part of the world known as Bharata-Khanda (India), the last Arhat, Mahavira, was born in 598 B.C., in a town called Kundagrama, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two years and reached Moksa (the perfect condition) in 526 B.C. 20

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The Jaina philosophy also teaches that each soul (Atman) is a separate individuality, uncreated, and eternal in existence; that each individual soul has lived from time without beginning in some embodied state, evolving from the lower to the higher condition through the law of Karma, or cause and effect; that so long as the Karmas (forces generated in previous lives) have not been fully worked out, it has, after physical death, to form another body, until through evolutionary processes it unfolds its absolute purity. Its full perfection is then manifested. This perfection of the individuality is the Jaina Nirvana or Mukti. The individuality is not merged into anything: neither is it annihilated. The process of this development, or salvation, may be said simply to consist in right realization, right knowledge, and right life, the details of which are many. I will now say a few words about Jaina Psychology. There are five Gateways of Knowledge, all unfolding through the laws of evolution and Karma. The first is the senses. In the lowest form of life, there is only one sense that of touch. In higher forms of life, there are two, three, four, and (as in animals, birds, fish and men) five senses. Through the senses a limited form of knowledge is unfolded. The second source is study and reading. The third is Avadhi, or the psychic faculty, through which finer and more subtle things are known. The fourth is mind-knowing, by which the mental processes of others are known and understood.* The fifth is * This is not to be confounded with telepathy, or direct thoughttransference, in which a conscious relation has to be established between the agent and the recipient, since in genuine mind-knowledge the developed man knows the mental activities of others without their trying to communicate them to him. 21

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Absolute Knowledge, in which all limitations of body and brain are removed. This state is not a loss, but rather the acme, of consciousness. All these stages come to the ego not of themselves but through persistent effort and exercise of free will, or rather by making the will freer and freer. Personality is the mere physical but subtle gathering of excretions through which the individuality becomes unfolded. Personality is therefore changing every moment; the individuality is for every moment the particular stage of unfoldment of the ego itself, and is consequently the bearer of the sins and sorrows, pleasures and enjoyments, of mundane life. In absolute perfection this bearing nature is thrown off like a husk, and the ego dwells in divine and eternal bliss. It is not destroyed, nor is it merged into another ego or in a Supreme Being ; and if the question be asked whether in this state of Mukti (deliverance) there is one ego or a plurality of egos. I would answer in the words of the Jaina Master : "That Atman by which I experienced myself and my essence through self-realization--that I am: neither masculine, feminine, nor neuter; neither one, two, nor many." Now I come back to the quotation with which I began this article. The Vedanta metaphysics teaches that salvation comes through knowledge (of Brahman). It is not the potential that through effort and conquest becomes the actual ; and we are further taught that that which is is real now. On the other hand, Jainism teaches that from the ideal and transcendental standpoint you are Brahman; but its

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eternality, the real Mukti, comes from work and knowledge together, not from one alone. Through work and knowledge, Jainism says, the individual develops and unfolds the potential; therefore, the statement, "I am Brahman," would be interpreted by a Jaina to mean--I am Brahman only inherently, or in embryo; I have the capacity or the actual possibility of Brahman; what I am implicitly must become explicit. There is a vast difference between the implicit and the explicit. Those who do not recognize this difference would never make an attempt to become rational and free. The doctrine of the Jainas known as Syadvada or Anekantavada, it is proper to affirm, in the words of a writer in America "is competent to descend into the utmost minutiae of metaphysics and to settle all the vexed questions of abstruse speculation by a positive method (not merely asserting na iti, na iti, not so, not so)-to settle at any rate the limits of what it is possible to determine by any method which the human mind may be rationally supposed to possess. It promises to reconcile all the conflicting schools, not by inducing any of them necessarily to abandon their favourite 'standpoints', but proving to them that the standpoints of all others are alike tenable ; or, at least, that they are representative of some aspect of truth which under some modification needs to be represented ; and that the Integrity of Truth consists in this very variety of its aspects within the relational unity of an all comprehensive and ramifying principle." 23

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JAINISM Any philosophy or religion must be studied from all standpoints, and in order thoroughly to grasp the ideas of any religion or philosophy, know what it says with regard to the origin of the universe, what its idea is with regard to God, with regard to the soul and its destiny, and what it regards as the laws of the soul's life. The answers to all these questions would collectively give us a true idea of the religion or philosophy. In our country religion is not different from philosophy, and religion and philosophy do not differ from science. We do not say that there is scientific religion or religious science; we say that the two are identical. We do not use the word religion because it implies a binding back, and conveys the idea of dependence, the dependence of a finite being upon an infinite, and in that dependence consists the happiness or bliss of the individual. With the Jainas the idea is a little different. With them bliss consists not in dependence but in independence; the dependence is in the life of the world, and if that life of the world is a part of religion then we may express the idea by the English word, but the life which is the highest life is that in which we are personally independent so far as binding or disturbing influences are concerned. In the highest state the soul, which is the highest entity, is independent. This is the idea of our religion. The first important idea connected with it is the idea of the universe. Is it eternal or non-eternal ? Is it permanent or transi 24

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tory ? Of course there are so many different opinions on the subject, but with these opinions I am not concerned in this lecture; I am only going to give the idea of the Jaina philosophy. We say that we cannot study any idea unless we look upon it from all standpoints. We may express this idea by many symbols or forms; we have expressed it by the story of the elephant and the seven blind men who wanted to know what kind of animal the elephant was, and each touching a different part of the animal, understood its form in so many different ways, and thereupon became dogmatic. If you wish to understand what kind of animal an elephant is, you must look upon it from all sides, and so it is with truth. Therefore we say that the universe from one standpoint is eternal and from another non-eternal. The totality of the universe taken as a whole is eternal. It is a collection of many things. That collection contains the same particles every moment, therefore as a collection it is eternal; but there are so many parts of that collection and so many entities in it, all of which have their different states which occur at different times and each part does not retain the same state at all times. There is change, there is destruction of any particular form, and a new form comes into existence; and therefore if we look upon the universe from this standpoint it is non-eternal. With this philosophy there is no idea, and no place for the idea of creation out of nothing. That idea, really speaking, is not entertained by any right-thinking people. Even those who believe in creation believe from a different standpoint than erorts Tu

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this. It cannot come into existence out of nothing, but is an emanation coming out of something. The state only is created. This book in a sense is created because all the particles are put together, having been in a different state. The form of the book is created. There was a beginning of this book and there will be an end. In the same manner, with any form of matter, whether this form lasts for moments or for centuries, if there was a beginning there must be an end. We say that there are both preservation and destruction in the many forces working around us. All these forces are working every moment in the midst of us and around us, and the collection of these entities is called by the Jainas 'God'. The Brahmanas represent it by the syllable Om (); the first sound in this word represents the idea of creation, the second of preservation and the third of destruction. All these are energies of the universe and taken as a whole they are subject to certain fixed laws. If the laws are fixed why do people bow down to these energies? Why do they consider the collective energy as a god or as God ? There is always an idea of the power to do evil in the beginning of this conception. When railroads were first introduced into India ignorant people who did not know what they were, who had never seen in their lives that a car or carriage could be moved without the horse or the ox, thought that there was some divinity in the engine, some god or goddess, and some of them would even bow down before the car; and even to this day you will find in some parts of India, among the pariahs or low class that there 26

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are people who entertain this idea. So to these energies in our primitive state we are liable to attribute personality, and after a long course of development we symbolize our thoughts in the form of pictures, and explain them in that way to make them more intelligible to others. In the ancient times there was not rain but a rainer, not thunder but a thunderer, and in that way personality is attributed, or living consciousness and character, to those forces. There may be conscious entities in these forces as there may be living entities on the planets, but these forces themselves are not living entities. This, however, expresses the idea in the beginning : these energies were classed as creative, preservative and destructive, and these three entities were considered to be component parts of one entity called Brahma by the Hindus. Really, creation in this is in the sense of emanation, preservation is used in the sense of preserving the form, and destruction in the sense of destroying the form. The idea of matter is something that can be handled or perceived by the senses, and the energies must be material energies, as cohesion, magnetism, electricity, gravitation ; but to consider these God would be the most materialistic idea, and therefore the Jainas discard this idea so far as the Godhead or Godlike character is concerned. They of course admit the existence of these energies, that they are indeed to be found everywhere, but they are subject to fixed laws which cannot be interfered with by any person, not that these energies consciously influence our destinies with regard to good and evil. To say that they do 27

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so influence us is only to show our ignorance with regard to their laws. These energies collectively we call substantiality. There are innumerable qualities and attributes in matter itself, and they manifest themselves at different times and ways. We are not able without further development to know what energies are inherent in matter, and when any new thing comes to view we are surprised, and whatever is surprising, is considered to be something coming from divinity ; but where we understand scientific principles the surprise is removed and it is all as simple as the daily rising and setting of the sun. Thousands of years ago the different phenomena of nature were considered in different parts of the world to be the working of different gods and goddesses, but when we understand science these phenomena become simple and the idea of these beings as characters of the highest spiritual power goes away. What is the God of the Jainas?, you will ask. I have only told you what he is not. I will now tell you what it is. We know that there is something besides matter; we know that the body exhibits many qualities and powers not to be found in ordinary material substance, and that the something which causes this departs from the body at death. We do not know where it goes; we know that when it lives in the body, the powers of the body are different from what they are when it is not there. The powers of nature can be assimilated to the body when that something is there. That entity is considered by us the highest, and it is the same inherently in all living beings. This principle 28

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common to all of us is called divinity. It is not fully d'eveloped in any of us, as it was in the saviours of the world, and therefore we call them divine beings. So the collective idea derived from observations of the divine character inherent in all beings is by us called God. While there are so many energies in the material world and in the spiritual world, and putting those two energies together we give them the name of Nature, we separate the material energies and put them together, but the spiritual energies we put together and call them collectively God. We make a distinction, and worship only the spiritual energies. Why should we do so ? A Jaina verse says, "I bow down to that spiritual power or energy which is the cause of leading us to the path of salvation, which is supreme, which is omniscient; I bow down to that power because I wish to become like that power." So where the form of the Jaina prayer is given, the object is not to receive anything from that entity or from that spiritual nature, but to become one like that ; not that that spiritual entity will make us by a magic power become like itself, but by following out the ideal which is before our eyes we shall be able to change our own personality, it will be regenerated, as it were, and will be changed into a being which will have the same character as the divinity which is our idea of God. So we worship God, not as a being who is going to give us something, not because it is going to do something to please us, not because it is profitable in any way ; there is not any idea of selfishness; it is like prac 29

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tising virtue for the sake of virtue and without any other motive. Now we come to the idea of soul. The ordinary idea of soul substance is that in order for a thing to exist it must have form, it must be perceived by the senses. That is our ordinary experience. Really speaking it is the experience only of the sensuous part of the being, the lowest part of the human entity, and from that experience we derive conclusions and think that these conclusions apply to all substance. There are substances which cannot be perceived by the senses ; there are subtler sensations and entities and these can be known only by the consciousness, by the soul. Such a substance, which cannot be seen, heard, tasted, smelled or touched, is a substance which need not occupy space, and need not have any tangibility, but it may exist, although it may not have any form (and that substance does not require any space, is intangible and cannot be seen). Sight is an impression made on the nerves of the eyes by vibrations sent forth from -the object perceived and this impression which we call sight, if there are no vibrations coming out of the object, is of course not produced ; but if this substance influences us in certain ways, the implication is that there is something moving or producing vibrations, and these can not exist unless there is some material substance which is vibrating. The very fact that something is moving in some way and influences us in some peculiar way implies that there is something material about this. If there are no vibrations, the substance is not material. It need not exist in a form which will give us the 30

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impression of any colour, smell, etc. There is nothing which can partake both of the attributes of soul and of matter; the attributes of matter are directly contrary to those of the soul. While one has its life, in the other it does not become the other. How can that soul live in matter when its attributes are of a different nature ? By our own experience we know that we are obliged to live in surroundings which are not congenial to us, which are not of our own nature. People feel that they are not related to their surroundings, there must be some reason for their being obliged to live in those surroundings, but there must be a reason in the intelligence itself; it cannot be in the material substance. We know that this is a fact, because intelligence cannot proceed from any thing which is purely material. No material substance has given any evidence of having possessed intelligence; it might have done so when there was life in it, but without this it has no intelligence. That intelligence is, we are quite sure, influenced by material things, but it does not arise from the material things. Persons of sound intelligence take a large dose of some intoxicating drink and the intelligence will not work at all. Why should this material thing influence the immaterial, the soul ? The soul thinks that the body is itself and therefore anything which is done to the material self is supposed by the real self to be done to itself. That is where the Christian scientists and the Jaina philosophy will agree ; that if the soul thinks that the body is its real self, anything done to the body will be considered by the 31

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soul to be done to the soul, and therefore what happens to the body will be felt by the soul; but if the soul for a moment thinks that the body is not the self but altogether different and a stranger to the soul, for that reason no feeling of pain will exist; our attention is taken away in some other direction and we do not know what is passing before us. This shows that the self is something higher than the body. Still under ordinary circumstances the soul is influenced by the body, and therefore we are to study the laws of the body and soul so as to rise above these little things and proceed on our path to salvation or liberation, which is the real aspiration of the soul. There is power of matter itself, but that power is lower than the power of the soul. If there was no power at all in the body or in matter, the soul would never be influenced by it, for mere non-existence will never influence anything; but because there is such a thing as matter, when the soul thinks that there is a power of the body and a power of the matter, these powers will influence it. Bodily power as we see it is on account of the presence of the soul. There is a power in matter, as cohesion, etc., and this will work although the soul does not think anything about it. If the moon revolves around the earth there are some forces inherent in the earth and moon. What I mean to say is that the influence of these material powers on the soul powers depends on the soul's readiness or willingness to submit to these powers. If the soul takes the view that it will not be influenced by anything it cannot be so influenced. This 32

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being the soul's nature what is its origin ? Everything can be looked upon from two standpoints, the substance and the manifestation. If the state of the soul itself is to be taken into consideration, that state has its beginning and its end. The state of the soul as living in the human body had a beginning at birth and will have an end at death, but it is a beginning and an end of the state, not of the thing itself. The soul taken as a substance is eternal; taken as a state every state has its beginning and end. So this beginning of a state implies that before this beginning there was another state of the soul. Nothing can exist unless it exists in some state. The state may not be permanent, but the thing must have a state at all times. If therefore the present state of the soul had a beginning, it had another state before the beginning of this state, and after the end of this state it will have another state. So the future state is something that comes out of or is the result of the present state. As the future is to the present so the present is to the past. The present is only the future of the past. What is true with regard to the future state is true with regard to the past and present states. The acts of the past have determined our present state, and if this is true the acts of the present state must determine the future state. This brings us to the doctrines of rebirth, transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, reincarnation, etc., as they are variously known. First take incarnation, which means literally becoming flesh, and really speaking that which is matter is always matter, and that which 33

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is spirit is always spirit or soul. The spirit does not become flesh. If reincarnation means to become flesh there can be no reincarnation, but if it means simply the life in flesh for a short time, then there is reincarnation. Reincarnation means also to be born in some state again and again. Metempsychosis means in the Greek only change; that the animal itself, body and soul, everything together, is changed into the human being and the human being, body and soul, is changed into some other being, and that is altogether changed into some other thing and so on. That is the idea of metempsychosis. Transmigration of souls is, especially in the idea of the Christians, the idea of the human soul going into the animal body, as if this were a necessity. But that is not the real idea ; the real idea is simply going from one place to another or, from one body to another, but not necessarily going from the human body to the animal body, but simply travelling. It implies the idea of form. Nothing can travel unless it has form and occupies space and is material ; so in our philosophy we reject all these terms if that is the idea connected with these terms, and use the idea of rebirth; that is, the soul is born in some other body, and birth does not imply the same conditions applying to the human birth. There are certain conditions in which human beings are born ; the seed itself takes several months to ripen and then there is the birth. This may be due to certain acts or forces which are generated by human beings. These are in a condition to be observed by beings whose forces will take them to some other planet, 34

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and we say that there is another condition of birth there. There is no necessity for gestation and fecundation. The Karmic body has in itself many powers, and has a force to take to itself another body, which is in the case of the human beings a gross body, but in the case of other beings a subtle body is generated, and this body is changeable so far as its form and dimensions are concerned, therefore if the forces generated while we live any kind of life are of different kinds then in the case of some being it may be necessary that he should be born in the human condition, and pass through the actual conditions which must be obeyed if the human being is to be born, while if the forces generated are different in their character he may be born on some other planet where birth is manifested in a different way, without any necessity of the combination of the male and the female principle. There are so many different planes of life that the mere study of the human life ought not to be made to apply to all the affairs of life. We have studied only a few forms of the life of animals, human beings, etc., but that is only the part which under the present development of our science, of our eyesight even, we are able to study. We are not able to study other forms of life, innumerable in the universe, and therefore we ought not to apply the laws thus discovered to all forms of life. Our study is introspective because our idea is that the soul is able to know everything under the right circumstances. The knowledge acquired in these conditions is of a sounder nature and of a more correct kind because 35 www.jainelibrary.org

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the obstacles which come in the way of science are not there. Science has to commit mistakes and think they do not; still knowledge is derived from inferences which we draw from certain premises which may not be right or if the premises are right the inferences may be wrong. We do not mean to say that there are always mistakes in the knowledge which is acquired through sensation or through matter, but sometimes it is possible, and while it may be correct knowledge in many cases we cannot rely on that. The highest knowledge is immediate knowledge, derived by the soul without the assistance of any external thing, and the knowledge of liberated souls, and also the knowledge of human beings who are just on the point of being liberated, or have passed through the course of discipline, mental, moral and spiritual, and have nearly exhausted past forces, at the same time, generating spiritual forces, and on account of discipline and spiritual evolution have become receptive. The soul sees everything when this state is arrived at; it knows everything, is fully conscious and consciousness itself means first of all that it knows itself, and to know one's self means that it is something, some reality, and there can be no reality unless it can distinguish itself from other realities. Only the one universal thing could not know itself, because knowledge implies comparing one with another, and if that is not done there is no individuality. We say therefore that the soul in its highest existence knows that it is perfectly separate from other things so far as experience and knowledge are concerned, but 36

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in so far as its nature is concerned, so long as there is a sense of separateness there is no occasion or opportunity for the soul to rise higher because when the soul thinks that it is living a different existence for its own sake it is considering its own self to be different from another person, and thinks that this is its own and a part of its nature, its own being, and therefore anything done in regard to these surroundings will benefit or injure its own nature. It even thinks that its very life consists in doing good and in loving other souls and taking active measures for carrying into effect the very plan of that soul. Then it comes higher, and ultimately reaches the highest condition. The condition of the soul, as I have said, is the highest in which there is perfect consciousness, there is infinite knowledge and infinite bliss; we express these three ideas in Sanskrit as existence infinite, bliss infinite and knowledge infinite. That condition of the soul cannot be described by us because description is something which proceeds from a finite mind and when the soul becomes infinite no finite mind can fully express the conditions of that infinite state. The attributes we give therefore to that condition of the soul are always full of comprehension. We shall always leave out many things; we have not the power to express all our thoughts. How can we express, then, this state of a soul which so far as its power and knowledge are concerned is infinite ? The Jainas have studied the nature of the soul and the universe from these standpoints and have derived a beautiful principle, and so far as this is concerned 37

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there is this difference between this country and other countries and other religions, they can understand all these from these standpoints. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill," and Jainas practise universal love so that this also means that we should not kill any beings. If we say that the Bible does not mean that we take away a part of the Bible. Why should we interpret the laws of any religion from the narrowest standpoint? We should take into consideration the nature, attributes and working of all things. We cannot derive laws which are to be applied to the whole universe simply by our observation of a part of the conscious nature of the universe. If you wish to state correctly the nature of the universe you will study the nature of all the different parts of the universe and then the laws will be applicable to all parts of it. We think that we are superior to other things because our tenants who live on the ground floor are inferior to us, but we have no right therefore to crush those tenants, who later on will acquire the right to inhabit the second and third floors and finally the highest floor. One living on the highest plane has no right to crush those who live on the lowest plane. If one thinks that he has a right to do this, that he has not sufficient strength to live without destroying life, our philosophy says that it is still a sin to destroy life, and it remains only to choose the lowest form, the less evil. We will in business take such a kind of business as will yield the most profit and will cause us to lose the least, in which we have the less liabilities; and the highest condition will be that in 38

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which we have no liabilities and no creditors, the state in which we may live without any creditors or in a perfectly free condition. That is the liberated condition. The idea of Karma is very complicated. I have told you something of it in my former lectures. The one chief point is that that theory is not the theory of fatalism, not a theory in which the human being is tied down to some one, bound down by the force of something outside himself. In one sense only will there be fatalism, if we are free to do many things, we are also not free to do other things, and we cannot be freed from the results of our acts. Some results may be manifested in great strength, others very weakly ; some may take a very long time and others a very short time; some are of such a nature that they take a long time to work out, while the influence of others may be removed by simply washing with water and that will be the case in the matter of acts done incidentally without any settled purpose or any fixed desire. In such a case with reference to many acts we may counteract their effects by willing to do so. So the theory of Karma is not in any sense a theory of fatalism, but we say that all of us are not going to one goal without any desire on our part, not that we are to reach that state without any effort on our part, but that our present condition is the effect of our acts, thoughts and words in the past state. To say that all will reach the perfect state merely because some one has died that they might be saved, merely from a belief in this person, would be a theory of fat-lism, because 39

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those who have lived a pure and virtuous state and have not accepted a certain theory will not reach the perfected state simply for that reason and no other. The faith in saviours is simply this, that by following out the divine principle which is in our own selves when this is fully developed we also shall become Christs, by the crucifixion of the lower nature on the altar of the higher. We also use the cross as a symbol. All living beings have to pass through or evolve from the lowest, the monadic condition, to the highest state of existence, and cannot reach this unless they obtain possession of the three things necessary: right belief, right knowledge and right conduct. The right belief, really speaking, is not that there is no passing through forms after death, but the soul keeps progressing always in its own nature without any backward direction at all. We have expressed this in clear language without any parables or metaphors, but when we preach these truths to the ignorant masses, some story or picture might be necessary for them, and after that the explanation of the real meaning, as we have an allegory in the Pilgrim's Progress. It is just like reaching the Celestial City in that book, but we must all understand that these things are parables. Others may need music to assist their religion, but when we understand the esoteric meaning which underlies all religions there will be no quarrelling and no need of names or of forms, and this is really the object of all religions. 40

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ESSENTIAL PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM, BUDDHISM AND JAINISM Ladies and Gentlemen, From the mystic philosophy of India, we pass to the everyday philosophy of the three great sects of the East, the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jainas. When I was a small boy, about eight years old, I used to go with my father to hear the sermons of a. Jaina monk who happened to visit our town in those days. He delivered his sermons in a lecture hall specially built by my community. On one day, we went to the lecture hall half an hour earlier than the appointed time. After taking our seats we began to look with curiosity at some paintings on the walls of the lecture hall. One of them struck me most. It was the picture of a man holding steadfast the branch of a huge banian tree in the midst of a large well and an elephant standing at the brink of the well and trying with its mighty trunk to catch the man. At the bottom of the well there was a huge boa with its mouth open, ready to swallow the man. On each side of the well at the bottom there were four snakes with their hoods expanded, furiously hissing and ready to sting the man. Two rats, one white and one black, were eating away the trunk of the banian tree. On the top of a branch there was a honey-comb with a swarm of bees. The elephant while trying to catch the man moved that branch to and fro and caused some drops of honey to fall on the lips of the man. A monk, the minister of re 41

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ligion, stood on the opposite side of the elephant in his white garments, offering help to rescue the man from the well and from the attack of the elephant. And all this was in the midst of a forest. I could not understand the meaning of the painting. I gazed at it for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and still could not understand the meaning. Then I asked my father, "Papa, this picture seems to be very strange. What does it mean ?" He at once said, "Will you be able to understand it, even if I tell you what it is ? I think you will. Once upon a time this man whom you see in the picture hanging in the well was travelling from place to place with a party and they happened to pass through a thick forest full of wild beasts and robbers. While they were in the midst of the forest, some robbers attacked them. They all fled for their lives in different directions ; this man too did the same but he lost his track and while he looked back to see where he was, he saw that this elephant was furiously running after him. He saw that if he could not find some shelter, he would be instantly killed by the elephant. He looked in all directions and saw this well. He thought: this elephant is sure to kill me, I may perhaps save myself by jumping into the well. Off he jumps into the well and gets hold of one of the branches of the banian tree which you see in the well. At the bottom he saw that huge boa ready to swallow him ; on the four sides of the well at the bottom he saw four snakes hissing at him. The two rats are eating away the trunk of the tree and from the honey-comb at the top of the branch some drops 42

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of honey are falling on his lips. Just at this time, a minister of religion (like our respected brother Jones) happens to come there and offers him help to rescue him from the well, but the fellow seems quite satisfied with his lot while having the sweet taste of honey drops. He does not realize the fact that the whole trunk of the tree will be eaten away by the rats and then he would have no support at all; he would have to fall down to be swallowed by the cobra. This whole drama is represented in this picture." I said to my father, "Well, but what is the meaning of all this drama ?" He said, "It is all symbolical. This man in the well in this forest is the ordinary worldly man. The elephant that ran after him is death ; the well is this earthly life; the boa is the symbol of the lowest state of existence. The four snakes are the symbols of Anger, Vanity, Deceit and Greediness. The trunk of the banian tree is the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, white and black, represent time, the light half and dark half of the month which exhaust our earthly duration. The bees in the honey-comb are the organs of senses and the honey-drops represent the sensuous pleasures. And the minister represents the Truth religion. So the whole thing comes to this. The common man of the world, thinking that his life will be cut off at any time by death satisfies himself by enjoying the sensuous pleasures derived from the senses and does not care to receive the truths offered by true philosophy, he being influenced by sentiments of anger, vanity, deceit and greediness represented by the four snakes." 43

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I was perfectly astonished at this explanation of the picture and of the view of life taken by the Hindus. This was when I was eight years old. Twenty years after that, only the other day I happened to read one of Professor Max Muller's works, and I was much more astonished to see that he also expressed it in pretty nearly the same terms. Here are his views :-Our idea of life on earth has always been that of a struggle for existence, a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of all nations whose history is known to us. Our own sympathies also are almost entirely on that side. But was man placed on this earth for that one purpose only? Can we not imagine a different purpose, particularly under conditions such as existed for many centuries in India and nowhere else? In India the necessaries of life were few, and those which existed were supplied without much exertion on the part of man by a bountiful nature. Clothing, scanty as it was, was easily provided. Life in the open air or in the shades of the forest was more delightful than life in cottages or palaces. The danger of inroads from foreign countries was never dreamt of before the time of Darius and Alexander, and then on one side only, on the North, while more than a silver streak protected all around the far stretching shores of the country. Why should the ancient inhabitants of India not have accepted their lot ? Was it so very unnatural for them, endowed as they were, with a transcendent intellect, to look upon this life not as an arena for gladiatorial strife 44

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and combat, or as a market for cheating and huckstering, but as a resting place, a mere waiting room at a station on a journey leading them from the known to the unknown, but exciting for that very reason their utmost curiosity as to whence they came and whither they were going. So in those palmy days of India a large class of people, not only the priestly class but the nobility also, not only men but women also, never looked upon their life on earth as something real. What was real to them was the invisible, the life to come. What formed the theme of their conversations, what formed the subject of their meditations was the real that alone lent some kind of reality to this unreal phenomenal world. Whoever was supposed to have caught a new ray of truth was visited by young and old, was honoured by princes and kings, nay, was looked upon as holding a position far above that of kings and princes. I told you last Sunday that out of these rays of truth based on the Vedic literature of the Hindus six systems of philosophy arose. The first was the Nyaya system. The followers of that philosophy hoped by cultivating the instruments of knowledge -Perception, Inference, Analogy, Testimony-to reach final beatitude by right inquiry. They generalized from the phenomena of life to an extra cosmic deity of superhuman powers commanding our homage and worship. The inanimate universe, including the soul and mind of man, they left to itself and believed it to be the result of an act of divine creation. The accepted the Vaisesikas s. s. 3 45

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generalizations of Nyaya but went a step further in analysing the nature of material existence. They acknowledged the existence of an extra cosmic deity but like Gassendi nearly dropped the idea and busied themselves with the atoms and their nature. With them the universe began with atoms, infinite and eternal, moved by the will of the divine power. Thus as Gautama the author of Nyaya built up the metaphysics, Kanada the author of Vaisesika supplied the physics of a philosophy which generally goes under the name of Dialectic philosophy. A philosophy built upon mere abstractions and generalizations from phenomena, which can in reality never be individually generalized from, must result in pure atheism or anthropomorphic deism. Principal Caird says in his Philosophy of Religion, "Generalization so far from apprehending reality is a process which takes us away from it, and the further it advances, the more abstract our thought becomes, the further do we recede from the real objective truth of things." If the Nyaya and the Vaisesika thus represent the positive side of the method of abstract generalization, the Carvakas, the materialists, represent the negative aspect. They were not far from the modern materialists when they maintained life, thought or energy to be the result of material organization, but their philosophy made few disciples and converted none. All experience is in favour of declaring that dead matter is never capable of producing life and even the best representatives of modern physical science stand confessed of their ignorance of the real 46

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nature of matter and energy per se, at the altar of eternal truth. Even Mr. Huxley says, "In perfect strictness it is true that chemical investigation can tell us little or nothing directly of the composition of living matter and it is also in strictness true that we know nothing about the composition of any body whatever as it is." Observation has proved that every atom of matter is full of energy in one form or another. So that instead of postponing the appearance of mind to the last stage of material organization as the modern evolutionists have done, it is more consistent with reason to regard it as coexistent. The Nyaya philosophy regarded it as the very beginning but the intermeddling of a God isolated from his creation did not satisfy subsequent reasoners, such philosophy being subversive of that real knowledge which must by the very conditions of knowledge or thought look upon thought and intelligent being as inseparable. It is in some such train of reasoning that we find an explanation of Prakrti and Purusa of Kapila's Sankhya. The Sankhyas had advanced further, if advance it may be called, than the Vaisesikas in their analysis of matter and had demonstrated a theory of evolution, anything more entirely novel than which even the Vedanta has not to teach. They postulated Prakrti or undifferentiated cosmic matter as the eternal basis of cosmic evolution; and they definitely enumerated the various evolving stages of this matter with its properties, being hereupon called the Sankhyas. They however thought it would be impossible to postulate matter without mind and 47

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they therefore laid down an eternal union between Purusa or the eternal mind and Prakrti in all its stages of evolution. They attributed no functions to Purusa and regarded the evolutions of Prakyti for this purusa who was ever in it but never of it, trying in this manner to satisfy the necessity of philosophic thought. The Sankhyas will thus be nearer the truth, nearer because they were, by postulating two entities in the form of Prakrti and Purusa, both interdependent so to speak, indirectly precluding the possibility of Moksa, salvation, and initiating a principle which would lead to false results in practical ethics. Sattvaguna or purity, the first of the three properties of matter, is after all a kind of material purity in as much as that property is inseparable from Prakrti and to set this up as a standard to which men should ever try to reach is only to point a way to re-incarnation or fresh evolution of the individual self) and misery contemplation of Prakrti can raise the contemplation no higher than Prakyti, the source of all mundane existence and misery. Patanjali not satisfied with the practical side of Sankhya set up a kind of training, generally known as Yoga, for attaining the state of eternal bliss and postulated a kind of God, for purposes of contemplation. His Yoga led to marvellous physical results but nothing more. It again landed the student in Praksti only on a higher stage of it. The Vedanta philosophy while trying to meet this difficulty, went off at a tangent in a region to be conscious of which is an utter impossibility. Of Buddhism and Jainism we shall judge later on. 48

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The details of these philosophies will interest none but a student of metaphysics. My purpose therefore lies in giving you the essential principles which make up what are known as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the first place, therefore, let us see what Hinduism says as to the existence and nature of soul, for the theory of soul must be the foundation of every religion which deserves a name. In all ages it has been supposed that there is something divine in man; that there is in him the non-phenomenal agent on whom the phenomenal attributes of feeling, thinking and willing depend. To the Hindu philosophers this agent was selfevident (svayamprakasa). Of course, this agent, which they called Self was not discovered in a day. We see in the Upanisads many attempts to discover and grasp it. I shall give you a kind of allegory representing the search after this Self from the Chandogya Upanisad. It is a dialogue supposed to have taken place between Prajapati, the lord of creation, and Indra, representing the Devas, the bright gods, and Virocana representing the Asuras, the opponents of the Devas. Prajapati is said to have uttered the following sentence: "The Self (Atman) free from sin, free from age, from death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire and imagines nothing but what it ought to imagine, that is what we search out, that is what we must try to understand. He who has searched out that Self and understands it obtains all worlds and desires--that is final beatitude." 49

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The gods and the demons both heard these words and said, "Well, let us search for that Self by which if one has searched it, all worlds and all desires are obtained." Thus saying Indra went from the Devas, Virocana from the Asuras and both without having communicated with each other, holding fuel in their hands as is the custom with pupils approaching their master. They dwelt there as pupils for thirty-two years and served Prajapati. At the end of thirty-two years Prajapati turns his face to them and asks, "For what purpose have you been both dwelling here ?" They replied that they had heard the saying of Prajapati and that they had both dwelt near him because they wished to know the Self. Prajapati like many of the ancient sages dses not show himself inclined to part with his knowledge at once. He gives them several answers which though not exactly wrong are equivocal and open to a wrong interpretation. He says first, "The person that is seen in the eye, that is the Self. This is what I have said : this is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman." If the pupils had understood this as meant for the person that sees through the eye, or out of the eye, they would have received a right though indirect idea of the Self. But when they thought that the reflection of man in the eye of another person was meant, they were wrong. And they evidently took it in the latter sense, for they asked, "Sir, he who is perceived in the water and he who is perceived in a mirror, who is he ?" Prajapati replied, "He, the Self himself, indeed, is seen in all these. Look at yourself in a pan of 50

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water, and whatever you do not understand of yourself, come and tell me." They looked in the water pan. Then Prajapati said, "What do you see?" They said, "We both see the Self thus altogether, a picture even to the very hairs and nails." Prajapati then said, "After you have adorned yourselves, have put on your best clothes and cleansed yourselves, look again into the water pan." They did so and looked into the water pan. Prajapati says, "What do you see?" They said, "Just as we are, welladorned, with our best clothes and clean, thus we are both there, Sir, well-adorned with our best clothes and clean." Prajapati said, "That is the Self, that is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman." They both went away satisfied in their hearts. Prajapati thought, "They both go away without having perceived and without having known the Self and whoever of these two whether gods or demons will follow this doctrine will perish." Now Virocana satisfied in his heart went to the demons and preached that doctrine to them, that the Self alone is to be worshipped, that the Self alone is to be served and that he who worships the Self and serves the Self gains both worlds, this and the next. Therefore they call even now a man who does not give alms here, who has no faith and offers no sacrifices, an Asura, a demon ; for this is the doctrine of demons. They deck out the body of the dead with perfumes, flowers and fine raiment by way of ornament and think they will thus conquer the world. But Indra before he had returned to the gods saw this difficulty. As this Self (the shadow in the

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water, is well adorned when the body is well adorned, well-dressed when the body is well dressed, well cleaned when the body is well cleaned, that Self will also be blind if the body is blind, lame if the body is lame, crippled if the body is crippled, and perish in fact as soon as the body perishes; therefore I see no good in this doctrine. Taking fuel in his hand he went again as a pupil to Prajapati. Prajapati said to him, "Well, Indra, you went away with Virocana, quite satisfied in your heart ; what has brought you back ?" Indra said, "Sir, as this Self is well adorned when the body is well adorned, well dressed when the body is well dressed, etc., that Self will also be blind when the body is blind ? Therefore I see no good in this doctrine." "So it is, indeed," Prajapati said, "but I shall explain the true Self further to you. Live with me another thirty-two years." And then Prajapati said, "He who moves about happy in dreams, he is the Self, this is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman." Then Indra went away satisfied in his heart. But before he had returned to the gods, he saw this difficulty. "Although it is true that that Self is not blind even if the body is blind, nor lame if the body is lame, though it is true that that Self is not rendered faulty by the faults of the body, nor struck when the body is struck, nor lamed when the body is lamed, yet it is as if they struck him the Self in dreams, as if they chased him. He becomes even conscious, as it were, of pain and sheds tears in dreams. Therefore I see no good in this." - Taking fuel in his hands he went again as a 52

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pupil to Prajapati. Prajapati said, "Well, Indra, you went away satisfied in your heart, what has brought you back ? Indra told him his difficulty. Then Prajapati said, "So it is indeed, Indra. But I shall explain the true Self further to you. Live with me another thirty-two years." He lived with him another thirty-two years. Then Prajapati said, "When a man being asleep, reposing and at perfect rest, sees no dreams, that is the Self, this is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman." Indra went away, quite pleased ; but before he had returned to the gods he thought, "Truly, in this dreamless repose he does not know his Self that he is I, nor does he know anything that exists. He is gone to utter annihilation. So I see no good in this." Taking fuel in his hands he once more went to Prajapati as his pupil. Prajapati again asked : "Well, Indra, what again has brought you back ?" He again told him his difficulty. Prajapati said : "So it is indeed, Indra; I shall explain the true Self further to you and nothing more than this. Live here other five years." He lived there for other five years. This made in all 101 years. Prajapati then said, "Indra, this body is mortal and always held by death. It is the abode of that Self which is immortal and without body. When in the body by thinking this body is I and I am this body, the Self is held by pleasure and pain. So long as he is in the body he cannot get free from pleasure and pain. But when he is free of the body, when he knows himself different from the body, then neither pleasure nor pain touches him. The wind is without body, the cloud, lightning 53

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car and thunder are without body (without hands, feet, etc.). Now as these arising from the heavenly ether appear in their own form, as soon as they have approached the highest light, thus does that serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light-the knowledge of the Self. He in that state is the highest person. He moves about there laughing, playing and rejoicing, be it with women, riages or relations, never minding the body into which he was born. Like a horse attached to a cart, the spirit is attached to the body. Now where the sight has entered into the void, there is the person of the eye, the eye itself is but the instrument of seeing. He who knows let me smell this, he is the Self, the nose is but the instrument of smelling. He who knows let me say this, he is the Self, the tongue is but the instrument of saying. He who knows let me hear this, he is the Self, the ear is but the instrument of hearing. He who knows let me think this, he is the Self, the mind is but the divine eye. He the Self, seeing these pleasures (which to others are hidden like a buried treasure of gold) through his divine eye, i.e., through the mind, rejoices. He who knows that Self and understands it, obtains all worlds and all desires." Indra was satisfied by this explanation, went to the gods and taught them this doctrine. This dialogue is so plain that I need not explain its esoteric meaning. It is on this dialogue that the various sub-divisions of the Vedantic philosophy have offered different interpretations. We will take 54

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the interpretation of the most prominent Vedantin Sankara. Sankara says that it is quite true as Prajapati said that the true Self has nothing to do with the body. For the body is mortal but the Self is not mortal. The Self dwells in the body and as long as he thinks that the body is I and I am the body, the Self is enthralled by pleasure and pain, it is not perfect, it is not the immortal Self. But as soon as the Self knows that he is independent of the body and becomes free from it, not by death but by knowledge, then he suffers no longer, neither pain nor pleasure can touch him. When he has approached this highest light of knowledge, then there is perfect serenity. He knows himself to be the highest Self and therefore is the highest Self, and though while life lasts, he moves about among the pleasant sights of the world, he does not mind them, they concern his body only, or his bodily Self, his ego, not his absolute Self. He goes a step further and lays down that it is not the individual soul that is the highest Self, the highest Self is not different from Brahma; the interposition of ignorance, nescience or illusion leads the individual Self to believe that he is separate from Brahma; as soon as ignorance is removed, he is Brahma. He does not become Brahma ; for really he was nothing less than Brahma. A post in darkness may seem to be a thief to a person but when darkness is removed he realises the fact that it is a post and not a thief. On the disappearance of darkness, the object which was seen does not become a post but the fact is realised that it is and has ever been a post. In the 55

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same manner, the individual Self does not become the highest Self; only the truth comes out that it is the highest Self. This is the doctrine of the highly philosophical Hindu. Let us now turn to Buddha and see what he says as to the existence and nature of soul. Buddha's merit consists not in promulgating a special theory of his own as to the nature or existence of soul but in avoiding the metaphysical and subtle disputation of the Brahmanas. His sarcasm against this sort of discussion appears to be very bold as we read it in the Tevija Sutta. He says to a Brahmana named Vasettha-"Then you say, Vasettha, that not one of the Brahmanas, or of their teachers, or of their pupils has ever seen Brahman face to face. And that even Rsis of old, the utterers of the ancient verse, which the Brahmanas of today so carefully intone and recite precisely as they have been handed down-even they did not pretend to know or to have seen where or whence or whither Brahman is. So that the Brahmanas versed in the three Vedas have forsooth said thus, "To a state of union with that which we know not and have not, seen we can show the way and can say, 'this is the straight path, this is the direct way which leads him who acts according to him, into a state of union with Brahman'." "Now what do you think, Vasettha ? Does it not follow, this being so, that the talk of the Brahmanas, versed though they be in the three Vedas, is foolish talk ? Verily, Vasettha, that Brahmanas versed in the three Vedas should be able to show 56

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the way to a state of union with that which they do not know, neither have seen-such a condition of thing has no existence. As when a string of blind men are clinging one to the other, neither can the foremost see nor can the middle one see, nor can the hindmost see, just so is the talk of the Brahmanas versed in the three Vedas." What explanation then does Ponddha offer as to the nature of man and his relation to the world around him? In fact, Buddhism does not attempt to solve the problem of the primary origin of all things. When Malunka asked Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or non-eternal, he made him no reply; the reason of this was that it was considered by him as an inquiry which tended to no profit. Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings living within it and it holds that everything is subject to the law of cause and effect, and that everything is constantly though imperceptibly changing. The whole cosmos-earth, heavens and hell-is always tending to renovation or destruction; it is always in a course of change, a series of revolutions, or of cycles, of which the beginning and the end are unknowable and unknown. As to the nature of man, Buddha's teaching is that it consists of an assemblage of different properties or qualities of aggregates none of which corresponds to the Hindu or modern notion of soul. These are Rupa, forms or material attributes, Vedana, sensations, Samjna, notions or abstract ideas, Samskara, tendencies or potentialities, and Vijnana, i.e., con 57

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sciousness or mental powers. These aggregates along with hundred and ninety-three sub-divisions exhaust all the elements, all the material, intellectual and moral properties and attributes of the individual. There exists nothing apart from these, either fixed principle or soul, or simple or permanent substance of any kind. They unite and arrange themselves so as to form a several being, undergo incessant modification along with it and dissolve at its death; the individual being throughout a compound of compounds. entirely perishes. The influence of its karma alone of its acts survives it and through this the formation of a new group of Skanathas or aggregates is immediately effected ; a new individual rises into existence in some other world and continues in some degree the first. The Buddhist, strictly speaking, does not revive, but another, if I may say so, revives in his stead, and it is to avert from this other, who is to be only the heir of his karma, the pains of existence, that he aspires to Nirvana. Let us now turn to Jainism and see what explanation it offers as to the nature and existence of soul. While Vedantism says that in reality nothing exists apart from Brahma, that the phenomenal world is an illusory phantom, that the only reality is noumenon-the Brahma, Jainism says that both the noumenon and the phenomenon are real, the one cannot be separated from the other; Reality is not in the one, if considered alone and by itself, nor in the other if considered alone and by itself. The one as well as the other is a part of the reality. So in the Jaina philosophy, the existence of both spirit and 58

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matter is postulated--both of them existing as separate entities; so far as both of them exist as entities, they may be classed under one category the existence, the substance-one the material, the other the spiritual. Both of them have their qualities and modifications. But while the Vedantist says that the modification of a substance is a phenomenon and therefore unreal and the substance itself is the only reality, a Jaina says that substance and its modification are inseparable. Though a substance is different from its modification, neither of them can exist without the other. Though gold may be said to be in a sense different from a gold ring, a gold ring does not exist apart from gold, nor do you find gold existing separate from some modification or form. When an old form or modification is destroyed, a new one is produced and in both cases we have the same substance. This leads us to the Jaina theory of the origin of the Universe. Jainism has two ways of looking at things-one called the Dravyarthika Naya and the other the Paryayarthika Naya. The production of a gold ring is the production of something not previously existing (at least not as a ring) if we think of it from the latter point of view, i.e., as a Paryaya or modification; while it is not the production of something not previously existing, when we look at it from the former point of view, i.e., as a Dravya or substance. So the Universe looked upon as a totality is eternal; when looked upon in its several parts and modifications there is in it creation and destruction every moment. The Jaina philosophy classifies the whole cosmos under the two 59

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heads Jiva and Ajiva--sentient or conscious, and insentient or unconscious. The sentient or conscious being sullied by its contact with the insentient or unconscious travels from body to body. When this unnecessary contact is removed, the conscious will shine forth in its bliss and that state is its final emancipation. This brings us to the doctrine of re-incarnation and Karma. Although this doctrine is rejected throughout Europe and America by the Christians, it is accepted by the majority of mankind at the present day. It has been held as true by the mightiest Eastern nations. The ancient civilization of Egypt was built upon this doctrine and it was handed over to Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid who scattered it through Greece and Italy. It is the keynote of Plato's philosophy when he says that all knowledge is reminiscence. It was wholly adopted by the Neo-Platonists like Plotinus and Proclas. The hundreds of millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jainas have made that doctrine the foundation of their philosophy, religion, government and social institutions. It was a cardinal point in the religion of the Persian unagi. The doctrine of Metempsychosis was an essential principle of the Druid faith and was impressed upon your forefathers, the Celts, the Gauls and the Britons. Among the Arab philosophers it was a favourite idea. The rites and ceremonies of the Romans, Druids and Hebrews expressed this truth forcibly. The Jainas adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. John the Baptist was to them a second 60

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Elijah. Jesus was thought to be a re-appearance of John the Baptist or one of the old prophets. The Roman Catholic purgatory seems to be a makeshift, contrived to take its place. Philosophers like Kant, Schelling and Schopenhauer have upheld this doctrine. Theologians like Julius Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. And today it reigns over the Burman, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, Tartar, Tibetan, East Indian and Ceylonese including at least 750 millions of mankind and nearly two-thirds of the race. Is it not wonderful then that this great and grand philosophical deduction which the Hindus, Buddhists and Jainas gave to the world centuries and centuries before the Christian Era should or could be blotted out of existence from the Western and European world by the soulblighting and absurd dogmas of the dark ages that supervened. By the persecution of wise men and destruction of innumerable works in the library of Constantinople, the Church hierarchy managed to plunge the whole of Europe into mental darkness which has given the world the black record of the inquisition and the loss of millions of human lives through religious wars and persecutions. What is reincarnation ? Reincarnation is the doctrine that souls enter this life not as a fresh creation, but after a long course of previous existences and will have to pass through many before reaching their final destination. Our age is the age of opinions. Instead of thinking ourselves, we allow others to think for us. If I can quote passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson or from Lord Tennyson's 61

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poems or from the Bible in favour of a certain theory no argument will be necessary to prove it. But if I quote a passage from my Bible, you will say you won't believe in its truth and will ask me to prove my position logically. I will accept the challenge and prove the truth of my theory, not by a quotation from my Scriptures but logically. We know that the human body is a mechanism, not a mechanism like a watch or a steam-engine, but a knowing mechanism, able to control itself. It is controlled not by an external power but by a power within, which we call mind, soul, spirit or ego. The existence of this central power is disputed by none. Materialism declares this central power to be the property of matter, to be the product of molecular activities going on within the brain. This theory only explains how mechanical motions are produced on the brain cells. But machines only produce motions, not judgments. An amoeba in search of food pursues no haphazard methods but makes most careful selections of the kind it wants. It will send out its pseudopodia, catch, swallow and digest a struggling infusorium or other nutritious game; but a mere touch of a grain of sand satisfies it as to its character, when it thrusts it from it in a way that plainly says, "That is not good." Oxygen consuming bacteria will cluster around grains of chlorophyl, if exposed to direct sunlight but pay no attention to them in the shade or darkness. They know when the oxygen is being given off. Infusoria guide themselves in hunting their food with apparently as much precision as fish. They avoid obsta 62

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cles and sometimes undertake to move them out of the way. They reject the innutritious and take the nutritious. These facts, evidently, teach that the central energy called the soul power is not the result of a nervous system but vice versa. In man this fact becomes most potent what particular motion among the molecules of the brain can be postulated as the physical equivalent and causal antecedent of our conceptions of justice, of truth, of moral obligation. The physical brain is limited to motion only, it cannot choose its own mode of motion even. What possible motion in the brain causes the idea 'I am I'? This recognition of a real unit does not vary from the cradle to the grave. From childhood to old age, during the whole course of the total change of all brain molecules, 'I am I' is undisturbed. This 'I am I' is the soul. It is this soul which makes memory possible. It has its own consciousness and not the consciousness of any one else, therefore it is a unit existing by itself. The law of the conservation of energy is true in the physical as well as in the spiritual world. Therefore as no atom can be created or destroyed, so also no soul entity can be created or destroyed. What becomes of soul then after what we call death? No power in the universe can annihilate it. It must exist somewhere. In what state would it exist ? Does it at once pass into spiritual existence ? If so, there is no justice in hurling all the egos, good, bad or indifferent, into spirituality without distinction. Spirituality itself means the existence of spirit pure and simple and there is no sense in asserting that all egos after 63

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death live in that state, when we know for a certainty that all of them have lived on this physical plane different kinds of life. Effects of good or bad acts committed on the physical plane must manifest on the physical plane. The force created by the ego on the physical plane in this life must in some way or other manifest itself after death on the physical plane in future life. And if the soul has to pass through other future lives, is it unreasonable to say that it has passed through past lives also ? If the soul was created at a time it must also die at death. Whatever begins in time must end in time. If the soul is immortal, it must be immortal at both its ends. It cannot be immortal at one end without being immortal at he other. The idea of special creation at birth impies the correlative of annihilation at death. It does not stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul enters this world for its first and only physical existence and then shoots off into an endless spiritual existence. As Emerson says : We wake and find ourselves on a stair. There are other stairs below us which we seem to have ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one which go upward and out of sight. Reincarnation is the only doctrine which gives a complete solution of the much disputed question of original sin. There cannot be greater injustice in the world than the fact that I am suffering for the transgression of my ancestor. Adonis responsibility for our sin is only a makeshift of the theologicians. No one but the individual himself can be 64

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blamed for his wrong-doing. Are not the courts of law of your United States founded on the ideas of justice? Will any judge sitting on the throne of justice be justified in accepting the death-the voluntary suicide of Mr. B as the proper retribution for the murder committed by Mr. A? And if he does that, will not the same judge be arraigned before a superior court having knowingly abetted the suicide of B? And still we are asked to believe that the guilt of one man can be washed by the suffering of another. But the doctrine of reincarnation assists us most when we look at inequality and injustice and evil of the world and seek for solution. Why is one man born rich and the other poor? Why is one man born in Central Africa among the cannibals and the other . in the peaceful part of India ? Why is Queen Victoria born to rule over territories on which the sun never sets and why is a labourer of Burma born in Burma to work as a slave in an Englishman's tea-garden ? What is the cause of this apparent injustice ? Even those who believe in the personal creator of the universe must believe in this doctrine of reincarnation in order to exonerate God from the charge of maliciousness. And now let us see if the Bible of Christendom assists in upholding this doctrine. In the Proverbs of Solomon we find this passage: Proverbs VIII.22-31. Here all the verses except the last two prove the pre-existence of soul, and not the creation at a certain time. The first two verses even prove a prior physical life. Let us turn to Jeremiah I. 5: "Before I formed thee 65

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in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." This shows that the prophets too had existed before. Even in the New Testament there is sufficient evidence for reincarnation. In John IX. 2 a question is put to Jesus by his disciples--Which did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ? This refers to two popular theories of the time one that of Moses who taught that the sins of fathers would descend on the children to the third and the fourth generation and the other that of reincarnation doctrine. He merely says that neither that man's sin nor his father's sin was the cause of his blindness; he does not deny the pre-existence of that man. For in Galatians VI. 7 we find : Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap. Paul does not here mean that what a man soweth in this physical existence that he shall reap in spiritual existence. For in the next passage he says : For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Even the words of Jesus confirm the doctrine. In St. Mathew XI he says : Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist : notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John, and if ye will receive it this is Elias, which was far to come." Does not Jesus mean that John 66

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was reincarnated Elias. It is useless to multiply instances taken from the Bible. For every candid Christian student must acknowledge that the truth of the doctrine of Reincarnation does not depend on a scripture's mention. But some people may say-If this doctrine is true, how is it that we do not remember our past incarnations ? I will ask such people-In what way do we exercise the faculty of memory ? Certainly, so far as we are living in a body, we exercise it through the brain. In passing from one incarnation to the other, the soul does not carry its former brain in the new body. Even during the course of one life, do we always remember our past doings ? Can any one remember that wonderful epoch the infancy? This doctrine of reincarnation is common to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Out of these ideas all of them have constructed high codes of morality pretty nearly similar to one another. 67

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KARMA In the logical development of the Hindu philosophical systems, the doctrine of Karma occupies a conspicuous place. The earliest effusions of the Aryan people, when we first find them settling on the bank of the Indus, are prayers to nature-gods, invoking them to protect themselves and their flocks and to help them in conquering their enemies. Their ceremonial consisted of offerings of oblations to the manes of deceased ancestors, sacrifices to the powers of nature and praises of the benign forces which they had personified. This the later Hindus called the Karma-marga, the path of works, in contradistinction to the Jnana-marga, the path of knowledge. The Upanisads and the Bhagavadgita treats of Karma in the above sense and the sense of duty. The Dharma-sastras prescribe many ceremonials and duties under the head Karma. The Vedanta sharply distinguishes the Karma-marga from the Jnana-marga. One of the truths of Philology, which strikes us more than others, is that a word continually develops in ideas with the advance of culture and civilization. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus uses the word 'Logos' in the sense of the reason of the world. His analysis of the world ultimately leads him to the principle of Becoming, Change. In his view, this change is accomplished in accordance with definite relations, and in a succession that remains always the same. This rhythm of events he calls by various names.Destiny, Order, Reason 68

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(Logos) is his First Principle. These predicates, in which physical, ethical and logical order in the world appears as still identified, prove only the undeveloped state of thought which does not yet know how to separate the different motives. The Stoics had a little different view of the Logos. According to them the entire universe formed a single, unitary, living, connected whole, and that all particular things were determinate forms assumed by a divine primitive power which was in a state of eternal activity. In their view, the deity, as the actively productive and formative power, is a kind of Logos; also the rational part of souls is a consubstantial emanation from the divine Logos. The Christian idea of Logos is largely influenced by the Stoics' doctrine ; only-there are added to it the appeal to and the supremacy of authority. Right knowledge was, therefore, not possible except through divine revelation. All knowledge is, as Numenius said, the kindling of the small light from the great light which illumines the world. Later Logos gets entirely personified. Origen teaches that God begets the eternal Son, the Logos, as the sum-total of his world-thoughts, and through him the realm of free spirits, which, limited within itself, surrounds the daily as an ever-living garment. I have given the above illustration simply for confirming the idea that a word, with advancing civilization develops in meaning. I need not go into the discussion of the various meanings that were attached to Karma at different periods of its history. My present purpose is only to present to the readers 69

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a complete view of the subject of Karma as the Jainas have understood it. What is Karma ? Before answering this question, it will be necessary to know what the philosophical view of the Jainas is in regard to the Cosmos. They teach that the total reality known as the Cosmos had no beginning and will have no end. More correctly speaking, the Cosmos did not come out of nothing and will never be annihilated. The substance, in the abstract sense, of the Cosmos is permanent ; its activities are changing every moment. If Reality means the highest generalized idea we can form of whatever we come to know, it is the Being, Esse. It being the most abstract idea, it is not divisible. We may say it is one, without a second. Truly speaking, numbering does not apply to abstraction. If, however, Reality means concrete substance having essentially different activities, different not only in degree but in kind, then we have two grand divisions of the Universe : the animate world and the inanimate world. In the Jaina view, the inanimate world consists of matter, two kinds of ether, known as Dharmastikaya and Adharmastikaya, and space. The animate world consists of innumerable kinds of living beings, each being a centre of complex forces. Time may be figuratively called a substance, really meaning a generalized mode of thought in regard to the activities of beings and things. The universe is not merely a congeries of the above mentioned substances, heaped together and set in activity by an extra cosmic creator but is a system by itself, governed by laws inherent in its 70

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very constitution. Law is not to be understood in the sense of a rule of action prescribed by authority, but as a proposition which expresses the constant or regular order or certain phenomena, or constant mode of action of things and beings. It is not a command but a formula to which things or beings conform precisely and without exception, of course, under definite circumstances and surroundings. Jainism, therefore, is not a theistic system in the sense of the belief of the existence of a god as the Creator and Ruler of the universe. And still, the highest being, in the Jaina view, is a person and not characterless, qualityless Being like Brahma of the Vedanta Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable activities. In any particular being, these activities determine the stage of its evolution. It has its biological or vital activities--those of drawing the necessary nutritive elements, assimilating them, also of growth and decay, and feeling in a way the influences of the forces of nature. Under certain circumstances and relationships, certain influences act upon it in an incongenial way; and still, in course of time, it develops a wonderful adaptibility.

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HOW TO STUDY JAINA PHILOSOPHY The Jaina philosophy has been a stumbling block to many a scholar, Eastern and Western. Modern students are accustomed to think in the popular way known as the scientific way--the way common to the various sciences of the day. "It is the way with them," as Prof. William Wallace says, "to assume that the student has a rough general image, of the objects which they examine; and under the guidance or with the help of this generalized image, they go on to explain and describe its outlines more completely. They start with an approximate conception, such as any body may be supposed to have ; and this they seek to render more definite. The geologist, for example, could scarcely teach geology, unless he could pre-suppose or produce some acquaintance on the part of his pupils with what Hume would have called an'impression' or an 'idea of the rocks and formations of which he has to treat. The geometer gives a short, and, as it were, popular explanation of the sense in which angles, circles, triangles, etc., are to be understood : and then by the aid of these provisional definitions we come to a more scientific notion of the same terms. The third book of Euclid, for example, brings before us a clearer notion of what a circle is, than the nominal explanation in the list of definitions. By means of these temporary aids, or, as we may call them, leading strings of the intellect, the progress of the ordinary scientific student is made tolerably easy." This is the scientific method 72

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of study. Never in this method is brought into prominence the necessity of psychological and ethical improvement of the mind which wishes to study the great problems of life and the universe. Self-restraint, the first step in acquiring true knowledge, sacrifice of the cherished habits of mind, giving up of Dssti-raga, as we Jainas call it, which are in our opinion the sine qua non of full and clear understanding of the self and the non-self are seldom taken into consideration in the Western method of thinking. This vice of popular method of thinking is specially apparent among religious propagandists and political leaders. Their idols symbolized in certain words remain always unflinching. Atheism, Father hood of God. 73

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CONTRIBUTION OF JAINISM TO PHILOSOPHY Jaina means a follower of Jina, which is a generic term applied to those persons (men and women) who conquer their lower nature (passion, hatred and the like) and bring into prominence the highest. There lived many such Jinas in the past and many will doubtless yet be born. Of such Jinas those who become spiritual heads and regenerators of the community are called Arhats (the deserving ones), or Tirtharkaras (bridgemakers in the figurative sense--that is those by the practice of whose teaching we can cross the ocean of mundane life and reach the perfect state). Hence the Jainas are also called Arhats. In each half-cycle of many millions of years twenty-four Arhats are born. In the present half-cycle the last Arhat, Mahavira, was born in 598 B.C., in Kundagrama, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two years and attained Moksa (liberation) in 526 B.C. When European scholars first began to investigate the history of Jainism, they were struck with the similarities between its ethical code and institutions and those of Buddhism; hence they thought that Jainism must be a branch of Buddhism. But thanks to the labours of Jacobi, Buhler and Leumann, it is now conclusively proved that Jainism is much older than Buddhism. At the advent of the Buddha the Jaina sect had already attained a prominent position in the religious world of India. We may now turn our attention to the contributions made by Jainism to Philosophy. In India, as 74

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elsewhere, philosophy became possible when the struggles for existence were followed by its enjoyment, when the spirit of conquest gave way to a life of peace and industry. The early effusions of the Aryan people, when we find them on the march of conquest of the aboriginal races of India, are invocations of prosperity on themselves and their flocks: adoration of the dawn, celebration of the struggle between the god who wields the lightning and the power of darkness, and the rendering of thanks to the heavenly beings for preservation in battle. When they settle down, we see them engaged in a high degree of reflection. Reflection is the moving spirit of philosophy. But all primitive philosophy concerns itself with searching for the origin of the world. It postulates, after naive analysis, an original simple substance, from which it attempts to explain the multiplicity of the complex world. Philosophy in this sense assumes various forms. All of them attempt to interpret or rather formulate the law of causation. The Sankhya Philosophy, for instance, tries to explain evolution and even "cosmic" consciousness, and the growth of organs, etc., as proceeding from a simple substance called Praksti, or primordial matter. Orthodox philosophical systems of India--that is, those based on the Vedas and the Upanisads-adopt either the theory of creation or of evolution, or of illusion to explain the origin of the world. Whatever theory they resort to, a simple substance or substances, intelligent, or unintelligent, is or are postulated as the origin or cause of whatever there exists. Of the primal substance or 75

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substances there is no cause or origin. Early Greek Philosophers--Thales and others--considered the riddle of existence solved when the original material had been stated, out of the modifications of which all things consist. How the original simple substance converted itself into complex substances no philosopher explains. The Jaina position in this matter being peculiar, it will be necessary to take a more extended survey of philosophy. In the view of Jaina Philosophy, the measure of truth is Samyag-jnana, that is, knowledge purged of all infatuating elements. The constitution of man is such that as soon as he removes moral vices, his intellective processes flow into a pure channel. I may add that knowledge as knowledge or morality as morality is not the ideal of the Jainas. In fact, some kind of action always goes with knowledge without action, or action without knowledge. True advancement consists in both being right and consistent. Coming back to the question of the first beginning of philosophy, we say that primitive systems, in search of reality, are satisfied when they postulate a simple substance for the explanation of the complexity of the universe. This kind of reflection, though primitive, is an improvement on the spirit of conquest, devastation, and extirpation. Centuries. of peace, industry, and reflection develop better culture and higher civilization. The history of all nations bears ample testimony to this fact. India is no exception to this rule. The day on which the Aryan ancestors of modern Hindus first began to reflect on 76

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the origin of the universe must be celebrated by them as a national holiday. Unfortunately, such a day cannot be fixed and the Hindus have never had a national spirit. The Jaina view is that the "realization" of the primal substance, out of which the universe has manifested, is no advancement or progress. The Jainas are the advocates of the development theory; hence their ideal is physical, mental, moral and spiritual perfection. The very idea of a simple substance, without qualities, character and activities, finds no place in the Jaina philosophy, and is regarded as irrelevant and illogical; a characterless cause manifesting as a qualitative effect is a misunderstanding of the law of causation. Cause and effect, substance and manifestation, noumenon and phenomenon, are really identical. Cause is a cause when it is operating, and operating cause is itself the effect. Hydrogen and Oxygen, in their ordinary condition, are not water; vibrating in a peculiar electrical way, they are not only the cause and water the effect, but water is what they are in this relation. Any object, divested of all relations, could not be called by any other name than Being or Ens. As an abstraction or generalization, the process has its use. In order to study the various aspects of things and ideas, this method of analysis is invaluable. But to call Being or "Eternal Ens" the cause or the noumenon, or the absolute, and distinguish it from the effect, calling it the unreal, phenomenon, or relative, is pseudo-analysis. The Jaina process of acquiring knowledge may be described as follows: S.9.4

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First, there is the indefinite cognition as an isolated object or idea; it is the state of the mind prior to analysis, that condition of things to which analysis is to be applied. This is what is really meant by unity, or identity, of the universe with the real which many philosophers proclaim. It makes no difference whether this unity or identity finds its home in a sensuous object or a subjective idea, the process is the same. Next comes analysis--the dissolving, separating, or differencing of the parts, elements, properties, or aspects. Last comes the synthesis, which is putting together the primitive indefinite cognition--synthesis with the subsequent analysis; so that the primitive cognition shall not be a complete annihilation or disappearance by the condensation of all differences, and so that, on the other hand, the analysis shall not be an absolute diffusiveness, isolation, or abstraction, destructive of all unity, which is not the primitive unity but the relational unity of a variety of aspects. The analytical method is known in the Jaina literature as Naya-vada (consideration of aspects). The synthetical method is known as Syad-vada (doctrine of the inexpugnability of the in'extricably combined properties and relations) or Anekanta-vada (doctrine of non-isolation). Voluminous works on this subject have been written by Jaina scholars, all in manuscripts still unpublished. In illustration of what I have thus stated, I may remark that to a person in whom the first germ of reflection is just born the universe is a vague something, an utter mystery--at the most, a unity with 78

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out differentiation; analysis leads him to consider its various aspects. He is struck with the change he sees everywhere. The constantly-running waters of decaying plants and vegetables, dying animals and human beings strongly impress him that nothing is permanent. His first generalization, therefore, will be that the world is transitory. After years of research and reflection, he may learn that the things that pass away still exist in an altered condition somewhere. He may now generalize that nothing is annihilated; that notwithstanding the changes that are visible everywhere, the world, taken as a whole, is permanent. Both generalizations are true from different points of view ; each by itself is an abstraction. When one learns to synthesize, he puts together the various aspects he has found of the world, and realizes that the integrality of truth consists in the indissoluble combination of all the possible aspects. The inherence of contrary aspects in a single idea or object seems impossible to the unsynthetic mind. ... The Jainas do not teach that a thing can be hot and cold at the same moment, but they do teach that a thing cannot be hot absolutely, and cannot be cold absolutely; it is hot under certain definite circumstances, and cold under others. The Jainas do not teach that being and non-being of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the same thing. What they teach is that in a thing there is being of itself, and non-being of other things, which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what it is not.... I shall now state a few of the first principles of 79

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the Jaina philosophy. Its first teaching is that the universe is not merely a congeries of substances, heaped together and set in activity by an extracosmic creator, but is a system by itself, governed by laws inherent in its very constitution. Law is not to be understood in the sense of a rule of action prescribed by authority, but as a proposition which expresses the constant mode of action of things or beings under certain definite circumstances. It is not a command, but a formula to which things or beings conform precisely and without exception under definite relations, internal and external. Jainism, therefore, is not a theistic system in the sense of belief in the existence of a God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe ; and still the highest being in the Jaina view is a person, and not impersonal, characterless, qualityless being. All that there is in or of the universe may be classified under two heads: (1) Sentient, animate or conscious beings : (a) liberated beings, (b) embodied beings; and (2) Insentient, inanimate or unconscious things or substances. There is not an inch of space in the universe where there are not innumerable minute living beings. They are smaller than the minutest things we can see with the aid of a microscope. Weapons and fire are too gross to destroy them. Their life and death depend on their vital forces, which are, of course, related to the surroundings. Clay, stones, etc., as they came fresh from the earth, have life. Water, besides being the home of many living beings, is itself an assemblage of minute animate creatures. 80

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Air, fire, and even lightning, have life. Strictly speaking, the physical substance of clay, water, stone etc., is a multitude of bodies of living beings. Dry clay, dry stone, boiled water, are pure matter, and have no life. Vegetables, trees, fruits, have life. When dried or cooked there is no life in them. Worms, insects, fishes, birds, animals, human beings, are all living beings. There are living beings on stars and planets, and even beyond the starry region. "Life" is only an abstraction. It is not something concrete, superadded to the constituent elements of living beings. It is a generalization, derived from our observation of varying modes of behaviour of such living beings. The stage of actual development of one living being being different from that of another, living beings are classified in many ways in the Jaina philosophy. The simplest classification is based on the number of organs of sense they have developed. Besides this category of living beings, where is one of inanimate substances. These are matter, two kinds of ether (one, the fulcrum of motion, the other, the fulcrum of rest), and space. We must bear in mind that ether and space are not matter in the Jaina view. Matter has various qualities and relationships which the former do not possess. Time is also called a substance in a figurative sense, a generalization of the moving activities of things and beings. Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable potential and actual energies, which are called 81

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Karmas in the Jaina philosophy. The word "Karma" has an interesting history. In the Vedas it means the performance of sacrifices, offering of oblations to nature-gods and manes or deceased ancestors. Karma-marga--the path of worksmis nothing but ritualistic Brahmanism. In the words of Sir Monier Williams: "Not even Jewish literature contains so many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brahmins. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise and prayer, preaching, teaching, and repetition of the sacred words of scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every man throughout his whole life rested all his hopes on continually offering oblations of some kind to the gods; and the burning of his body at death was held to be the last offering of himself in fire (antyesti)." In later literature, Karma, in addition to the above meaning, also meant duty and good and bad actions. In the Jaina literature we have a fuller meaning. It is any energy which an embodied being generates-be it vital, mental, or moral--and which keeps him in the mundane world --the Samsara. Karma, in short, is the whole Samsaric make-up of an embodied being. It is entirely divested of the sacrifice idea. Karmas which keep the individual in a backward condition are known as Papa, those which help him in advancement are Punya. The Jaina philosophy gives a detailed enumeration of Karma, and explains, how they are attracted (Asrava), how they are assimilated with the individual (Bandha), how their inflow 82

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can be stopped (Samvara), how they can be entirely worked out (Nirjara), and what the ultimate state of a perfected individual is (Moksa). This particular branch of philosophy, therefore, includes topics like sensations, perceptions, consciousness, pains and pleasures, moralities of life, moral depravities, building of the bodies and all factors of the individuality. No other philosophical system in India has gone into so many details of life-building as Jainism has done. Like other systems, Jainism teaches the doctrine of rebirth, the nature of which depends on the nature of the Karmas that are just ripe to manifest themselves soon after death. It will be seen from the foregoing remarks that the ideal of the Jaina philosophy is the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual perfection and (after death or rebirth if necessary) attainment of perfect spiritual individuality, which does not disappear, is not dissolved, is not merged into a supreme being, is not a state of unconsciousness, but persists for ever and consists of perfected consciousness and highest rectitude. This being the goal of every living being, life in every form is highly respected by the Jainas. The universe is not for man alone, but is a theatre of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is their guiding principle. Ahimsa paramo dharmah -Non-injury is the highest religion. Their ceremonial worship, institutions, manners and customs (purely Jaina) all rest on this grand fulcrum of Ahimsa. Man, in his desire to continue his life forces, so that he may do the highest good while living here, is obliged to destroy life; but the less 83

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and lower form of life he destroys, the less harmful Karmas he generates. This is the basis of the strict vegetarianism of the Jainas. Acting on that idea, they have built homes for maimed or old animals in many cities and towns of India, where they are fed and taken care of until they die a natural death. The preaching of that grand principle has almost entirely superseded Brahmanical sacrifices of animals. In conclusion, I may observe that the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, in reply to an address by the Jainas of Calcutta, made the following remarks : "Among the various communities which have addressed me since my arrival, in India, there is none whose words of welcome awaken a more responsive echo in my breast than the Jainas. I am aware of the high ideas embodied in your religion, of the scrupulous conception of humanity which you entertain, of your great mercantile influence and activity, and of the ample charities that have characterized your public and private dispensations. Previous travels in India have also familiarized me with many of your temples, in whose architectural features I have observed a refinement that reminds me of the great days of Asiatic art." 84

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VIRCHAND R. GANDHI IN AMERICA Mr. V. R. Gandhi, B.A., of the University of Bombay, India, is a brilliant lawyer of unusual attainments, and is master of fourteen languages including English. He is the Honorary Secretary of the Jain Association of India, and enjoys the distinction of being the only gentleman from India, who was elected by the people at home as Delegate to the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in September, 1893, where he most eloquently represented the 5,000,000 of Jains of India. Mr. Gandhi has remained in this country to study our customs, politics, educational and industrial institutions. He is a man of strong personality, filled with enthusiasm, sincere and earnest in purpose, a man of unflinching moral courage and the soul of honour. All this and more impresses you as you look into his calm, piercing eyes, and listen to his animated discussions on the customs and religions of India. But it is when dwelling upon the selfishness and injustice of mankind and the miseries of the ignorant poor that Mr. Gandhi grows most eloquent, and his soul shines through his eyes as he warms with his subject. No one should fail to hear this eloquent native from India whenever opportunity occurs; one can gain more knowledge and truth in one evening than from any other source. He will be able to correct many prevalent and erroneous impressions concerning India and its people. He will answer all questions after the lecture that any one from the audience may choose to ask. There cannot be too 85

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much said in praise of this grand and noble man who daily lives up to the principles of purity which he advocates. Mr. Gandhi has already spoken in this country before clubs, lyceums, literary and church societies, theosophical branches and Spiritual associations, and has conducted large classes in Eastern Occultism. He has everywhere been accorded a warm reception and shown the highest appreciation. -Editor's Bureau. Chicago Suburban Star, Nov. 30, 1893 The Universal Church, Sixty-fifth street and Stewart avenue was comfortably filled Sunday evening on the occasion of the third lecture in the Union Study Club course, which was given by Virchand R. Gandhi of Bombay, Honorary Secretary of the Jain Association of India. The lecture contained a geographical and historical review of India, a digest of the religions, philosophies, theosophies and literatures of the Aryan races, and a very interesting description of the social customs of the Hindus. The speaker very emphatically denied the popular story about the car of Juggernaut, under whose wheels the religious devotee has been supposed to cast himself and be immolated. He characterized the tale of Juggernaut and other recitals of Hindu self-torture as the falsifications of sensational missionaries. The Universalist Messenger, Chicago, Feb. 10, 1894 The series of lectures on Oriental Philosophy, given by Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi every Monday evening at the residence of Mr. Chas. Howard, 6558 86

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Stewart Boulevard, are growing more and more inte resting. The subject last Monday evening was the ethical side of the Yoga philosophy. The treatment given it was eminently scholarly, such as could emanate only from the metaphysical mind of a Hindu. These lectures are listened to by an already cultivated class of people, who concede the fact that these Hindus are the custodians of knowledge pure and simple, and are ever ready and willing to give the key which will unlock the treasury box containing all the mysterious truths that mind can grasp. Chicago Daily Sun, April 3, 1894 Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, B.A., of Bombay, lectured Monday evening at 6558 Steward Boulevard. The subject was Jainism, the religion which Mr. Gandhi came to this country to represent at the Parliament of Religions, and which has been listened to by larger and more enthusiastic audiences than any other Oriental Religion which has been presented during or since the Parliament by the many scholarly representatives from the various countries. St. Joseph Gazette, Mo., May 8, 1894 The Parliament of Religions, which formed one of the most interesting features of the great World's Fair, opened the eyes of eminent Christians to the fact that the issues joined by modern Christianity and the religion and philosophy of heathendom leave debatable ground upon which the heathen may stand in defence of the faith of his fathers. Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, of Bombay, who was one of the most 87

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prominent representatives at the World's Parliament of Religions, writes a paper in the April Forum entitled, "Why Christian Missions have failed in India." Chicago Herald, August 4, 1894 Virchand R. Gandhi, who was a prominent member at the Parliament of Religions, has just published a correct translation of the "Unknown Life of Jesus Christ", and being a native of India, and having travelled much in that country, has been able to add to his book a fine picture of the Himis Monastery where Notovitch discovered the manuscript. Also, he has added many other illustrations, and a most scholarly and exhaustive introduction, altogether giving to his work a dignity that no other translation possesses. Every one should possess a copy of this most scholarly translation. Buffalo Times,, N.Y., August 8, 1894 Virchand Gandhi is the guest of honour at Cassadaga. He has already won his way to the hearts of the people by the soft persuasiveness of his reasoning, oriental in its simplicity, strength and power of conviction. His musically modulated voice and physical repose distinguish him no less than his Oriental costume at any time and any place. Light of Truth, Cincinnati, August 11, 1894 Mr. Gandhi is a thorough student of the Vedic religion of India, thoroughly conversant with the Brahmanical tenets and the teachings of Buddha. He illumines them all with the spiritual halo and 88

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practical philosophy of his great teacher as well as his own luminous mind. The Illustrated Buffalo Express, Aug. 12, 1894 On Saturday afternoon one of the most enthusiastic audiences ever known to the auditorium of Cassadaga listened to "The Message of India to the People of America," by Virchand R. Gandhi, B.A., of Bombay, India, who was elected by a vote of 5,000,000 Jains to represent them at the late world's Congress of Religions in Chicago. Mr. Gandhi was given a perfect ovation as he stepped forward in his Oriental costume of royal purple silk and yellow turban and sash, and said : "Brothers and sisters of America: I greet you in the name of India and her three millions of sons and daughters. I greet you as brothers and sisters and bring you a message of peace, love, universal brotherhood and fellowship from the aged and wellpreserved nation of India, which is proud to clasp the hand of the youngest child of the ages. Our country in all confidence places in your lap the key to its archives of ancient philosophy and attainments, because you are in a perfect intellectual condition to appreciate its mystical treasures of religious lore. India has been studied from the outside and from a limited point of view and consequently misunderstood." The Jamestown All, New York, Aug. 13, 1894 The Buffalo excursion brought six carloads of people, and the Jamestown and Titusville the same. 89

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It was a "big day" and most of the people came to hear the learned Hindu, Virchand Gandhi. His subject Sunday afternoon was his impressions of our country and its various institutions. He complimented us, as a nation, on our hospitality, our common schools and universal education, thought our natural resources and industries marvelous, and made comparisons between us and his own Jainist people. In his lecture Saturday he gave "India's Message to America," and the lecture took every one by storm. He is so full of kindness and brotherly love for the American people, and so clear in expressing his ideas to us that no one can help but feel, after listening to him, that the Jainist people did well in selecting Mr. Gandhi as their representative to this country. Buffalo Evening Times, Aug. 13, 1894 Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, the East Indian, who represented 5,000,000 of his co-religionists at the Congress of Religions, preaches the universal brotherhood of man. He is much farther advanced in the Esoteric Philosophy than the western Theosophists, and gives far more lucid explanations of the Oriental teachings. The Hindu is decidedly the Lion of the season. Buffalo Evening Times, N. Y., Aug. 14, 1894 Yesterday morning Virchand Gandhi, the Bombay B.A., delivered his lecture to women exclusively. It drew out a large crowd of the fair sex and caused something of a sensation by reason of its pointed directness. 90

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Morning Star, Meadville, Penn., Aug. 14, 1894 Virchand Gandhi, of Bombay, India, is the picturesque figure on the grounds now, in his Oriental costume. Mr. Gandhi represented the Jainist sect at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago last year. He is a very intelligent man, and after hearing his lecture on "The Message of India to America," one is inclined to wonder if Indian missionaries to America are not in order. Buffalo Express, Aug. 14, 1894 Mr. Virchand Gandhi, of India, was the platform figure in this immense gathering of interested people. Looking over the audience, it was easy to perceive that the men and women from the outside world, as well as spiritists and Cassadagans themselves, followed every word that the Hindu said with the closest attention. Light of Truth, Aug. 18, 1894 Virchand R. Gandhi, the Jainist, has opened a class for instruction in the ancient religions. The lecture room is each day crowded to its utmost with brightest minds of the camp, eager to hear this wonderful Hindu scholar expound his religious theories. Buffalo Courier, Aug. 19, 1894 Virchand R. Gandhi, the Jain Hindu of Bombay, has been accorded the greatest ovation ever granted to a speaker at Cassadaga. Saturday afternoon when

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he stepped forward in his silken robe of royal purple and golden-colored turban and sash, the auditorium fairly rang with applause, and when he finished his speech, which was announced as "Some Mistakes Corrected," he was recalled again and again. The Evangelist, New York, Aug. 23, 1894 Recently Cassadaga, the trysting place of heterogeneous creeds, has blossomed out with a new attraction, striking to the eye as well as to the mind. This new card is Mr. Virchand Gandhi of Bombay, a gentleman of noble presence, a trained scholar, a lawyer versed in Sanskrit lore and in English literature as well. He came to this country by invitation of Dr. Barrows, as a representative of the Jain religion. Mr. Gandhi is an able exponent of all the religions of India. Evening Post, Cleveland, O., Sept., 19, 1894 Virchand R. Gandhi, representative of the Jain religion, the oldest of old India, lectured on the occult sciences and philosophies of that far-off country last evening, at Association Hall. His lecture. was profusely illustrated by means of the stereopticon and the views presented, showing as they did scenes of interest and people of a most fascinating land, were warmly appreciated by the large number of persons in attendance. Rochester Democrat and Chronicler, Sept. 24, 1894 Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, the Hindu philosopher and scholar, of Bombay, spoke in the First Univer 92

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salist church last evening to a crowded house. He was introduced by the Rev. Dr. Saxe as one who had represented nobly one of the great religions of India. Mr. Gandhi is a man of extensive learning. He has spent his time since the close of the parliament travelling about, lecturing and studying the industrial progress of this country, and especially the public school system. He is greatly impressed with the fact that in this land the poorest child has educational facilities equal to the richest. There are many fine schools in India, but the fee is so high that the poor cannot take advantage of them. The Rochester Herald, Oct. 3, 1894 ILLUSTRATED LECTURE ON INDIA Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, of Bombay, India, delivered an interesting and instructive lecture before the public school pupils in Free Academy hall last evening. The speaker gave a clear description of the customs and habits of the people of India. He presented many very interesting stereopticon views of the principal cities, the Elephanta and other caves, occupied by monks. The pictures showed the excellent work executed in ancient times. Altogether, these lectures are instructive to both, old and young, and should be seen and heard all over America. FROM REV. R. A. WHITE, CHICAGO, 6550, Lafayette Ave, Chicago, Ill. I consider Mr. Gandhi one of the best equipped of the many scholarly men who represented the various religions of India in the recent Parliament 93

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of Religions. A public lecture given by him in my church was, in my opinion, a most scholarly production, both in matter and form, and showed a thorough grasp of Oriental philosophy. Mr. Gandhi has a fine command of the English tongue, and is altogether a most interesting man in every way. R. A. WHITE FROM HON. E. B. SHERMAN, Master in Chancery of the United States Circuit Court "The Congress of Religions drew to Chicago several of the brightest and most interesting Oriental thinkers and scholars that it has ever been my pleasure to meet; among them is Mr. V. R. Gandhi, a lawyer of Bombay, India." "It has rarely, if ever, been my good fortune to meet a man whose reading and culture have been so wide and varied, and who, withal, has so sweet, sincere and teachable a spirit as Mr. Gandhi." FROM REV. ADDISON PARKER Pastor, Leading Baptist Church, LaPorte, Ind. PASTOR'S STUDY, LAPORTE, IND., Dec. 2, 1893 During the meeting of the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Gandhi's address upon the "Jains" of India, and also of a brief personal conversation with him. He impressed me as one of the brainiest and most stirring of the representatives of the Far East. I know of no one from whom I would prefer to hear con 94

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cerning the life and thought of the great people he represents. ADDISON PARKER. The Broad and Catholic spirit of this grand Hindu may be best understood by the following extract from his lecture, delivered at Cassadaga, N.Y., August 12, 1894, where he was engaged for several lectures and classes When missionaries sent from this continent to our country and to our people, shall have learned that we are children of the same family, that we inherit the same perceptions, the same rights, the same inspirations and the same relations to the Infinite, and seek to fraternise with us on that plane and with this recognition-then, and then only, antagonism and injustice will cease, and the bonds of common brotherhood will unite us in a mutual recognition of reasons for a perfect fellowship. * * What is that Christ in whose name you propose to conquer the world ? Is there a Christ of oppression ; is there a Christ of injustice; is there a Christ of misrepresentation ; is there a Christ of denial of all rights; is there a Christ of destruction of all holy aims and humane immemorial institutions; is there a Christ of injustice and exorbitant taxation for the support of a government, foreign to our knowledge, our thought, our religion and our consent? Who of these Christs has inscribed his name on the banner of your conquests? If you seek to conquer us under such banners, and in the name of such Christs, we refuse to be conquered. But, if you come to 95

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* us in the name and in the spirit of the Christ of education, of brotherhood, universal love, or in the name of that Christ, who, in the valley of the Ganges, and on the shores of the sea of Tiberius, taught and said, "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another" then I say, we will welcome you, for him we know, and of him we are not afraid. But all this must be understood in the full freedom of it. We cannot recognize a creedal Christ, a limited Christ, an emasculated truth whether it is viewed from an educational or moral and spiritual point of view, but the universal idea, without limit, without fetters, free. * We come gladly, at your invitation, for another reason. You are the most tolerant and liberal nation in the western world, and tolerance is the first article in the faith of every Hindu, Buddhist or Jainist. No man can point to any instance in the history of my people where any man was ever persecuted for religious opinion's sake. Our very language does not contain an equivalent word for the English word "persecution." We have words in our language, in the ancient Sanskrit, that cover the whole ground of justice, of purity, of goodness, of love and of all the sweet beatitudes of the soul's attainment, but not one word that means malice, persecution or tyranny for religious opinion's sake. 96

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THE DHARMA MAHOTSAVA * The East is the mother of Light, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Wisdom-all had their origin in the East. India is justly called the cradle of civilization and the mother of religions. Long before the dim rays of civilization entered the horizon of the western world, India was in full possession and enjoyment of these eternal verities that make for our spiritual progress. Her influence was felt in distant countries, in Egypt, in Babylonia, in Greece, and is today felt far away on the Pacific coast and on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The teachings of the wise men of the East have forced themselves on the minds of our brethren in all lands and in all countries. The World Congress of Religions of Chicago was but the re-echo of what had passed in times gone by in India. True, the great gathering of the World Congress of Religions had different objects in view from those that operated on the minds of our ancestors, who occasionally met in India in religious conferences. But this difference shows only the existence of different circumstances that seem to surround us. If the Chicago World Congress was the inevitable result of the spiritual surroundings of America and if it was necessary in the outcome of human society, the same necessity has been pressing upon India for hundreds of years, and more So since the division of the Indian peoples into diverse creeds and communities, until the combined forces brought about the memorable event of the year 1895, the Dharma Mahotsava of Ajmere. * From his unpublished writings in possession of Shri Mahavira Jaina Vidyalaya, Bombay. 97

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A LIFE SKETCH OF SHRI VIRCHAND RAGHAVJI GANDHI by SHRI H. H. DALAL, B.A., BAR-AT-LAW A great soul, a great patriot and a great exponent of the Jaina religion in the West, Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi, was born in Mahuva, a small town, near Bhavnagar in Saurashtra on the 25th August 1864 A.D. His father was a well-to-do gentleman of the town and though not endowed with wealth, was known for his honesty, integrity and religious-mindedness. He was a reformer and a man of great practical sense. He had fought against social evils and had succeeded in eradicating some. Shri Virchand was sent to a school in the town for his primary education at an early age. He was a brilliant and a promising boy. He was then sent to Bhavnagar for further studies. He passed his Matriculation examination of the University of Bombay, in the year 1880 A.D. at an early age of 16 years. Shri Virchand was a scholar and had a great thirst for knowledge. He made up his mind to go in for higher studies. In the same year, he entered the Elphinstone College in Bombay. In 1884 A.D. Shri Virchand graduated and took his degree of B.A. of the University of Bombay with honours. Probably he was the first graduate amongst the Jainas. After graduation, Shri Virchand had signed articles of clerkship with Messrs. Little & Co., Solicitors and started reading for Solicitors' examination 98

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But though brilliant and a keen mind, he was not destined to be a Solicitor. He had inherited and imbibed the spirit of reform and social service and his mind was working in that direction. Soon he found an opportunity. About this time in 1884 A.D. the Jain Association of India was established in Bombay with the objects of bringing the Jainas of various parts of India nearer together and to organise them with a view to achieve their social, moral and educational uplift; to look after the management of the religious and charitable trusts, to strive for preventing slaughter of cattle and to remove the hardships experienced by pilgrims in the places of pilgrimages in India. Shri Virchand was selected to be its honorary secretary. In this Institution, he found scope for achieving the objects dearer to his heart; and he did accomplish solution of various difficult and important problems of the day. The Thakore Saheb of Palitana had levied a pilgrim tax on all the pilgrims going there. Apart from the amount of tax, it entailed many hardships and it was galling to the Jainas. Shri Virchand made strenuous efforts and succeeded in removing the tax. His efforts brought about a compromise with the Thakore Saheb by which Shri Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi of Ahmedabad agreed to pay a lump sum of Rs. 15,000/- per year as Rakhopa money for looking after the safety of the pilgrims and the holy place and the tax was abolished. Another great achievement of Shri Virchand was his success in removal of a tallow factory started 99

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on the Sacred Hill of Sammet Shikar in Bihar. An Englishman called Boddam took a lease of a portion of the Hill from the Rajah of Palgunje and started construction of a factory for slaughtering pigs and making tallow out of them. This caused great resentment in the minds of the Jainas all over India. It was a great blow for the Jainas, as it violated the very first principle of Ahimsa, i.e., non-violence, as the factory erected on the Hill, every inch of which is made sacred by the twenty Tirthankaras, who achieved Nirvana (liberation) there. Jainas had made efforts to remove the factory and had filed a suit in the Subordinate Judge's Court in Bihar; but in the trial Court, they failed. Then an appeal was filed from the Judgment of the trial Court in the High Court of Calcutta. Shri Virchand was entrusted with this task. He went to Calcutta and stayed there for the work of this appeal. It is said that he learnt the Bengali language to correctly translate various relevant documents written in the Bengali language and script. Shri Virchand's great zeal and untiring efforts were largely responsible for winning the appeal and removing the tallow factory from the Hill. This case subsequently came to be known as a Piggery Case. The whole Hill and every inch of it, every stone and pebble, is regarded by the Jainas as sacred and an object of worship. The foreign British rulers of our country recognised the sacredness of the Hill and respected the feelings and religious sentiments of the Jainas then, and the piggery factory was removed. But it is a strange irony of fate that our own Government in 100

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the name of the agrarian reforms has deprived us of the Hill and taken possession of it with the object of developing the forest and forest industries. What was achieved by the great efforts of Shri Virchand by appeal to justice in British times, is being set at nought by our own rulers. Then came the opportunity which made him famous, which raised: Shri Virchand to a very high pedestal of a great exponent of the Jaina religion in the Western world and for which he is dearly remembered by the Jainas. In the year 1893, a great Congress of World Religions was called in Chicago, where leaders of various religions all over the world were invited. Our great Acharya Shri Vijayanandsuri, popularly known as Muni Shri Atmaramji, whose fame as a great leader of the Jaina religion had spread far and wide, was invited by the organisers to attend the Congress. The principles of right conduct of a Jaina sadhu would not permit him to go to America, which he could not do without making use of a steamer. But Acharya Atmaramji Maharaj did want the Jaina religion to be represented in the Congress. He wrote a letter to the Jaina Association of India in Bombay to send some one to represent the Jaina religion in the Congress. The choice fell on Shri Virchand, who had by the time become known for his brilliance, his zeal and study of the religious philosophy and devoutness. His name was approved by the Acharya Maharaj. Shri Virchand then went to the Acharya Maharaj and had special instructions and training in the principles, practice and philosophy of the Jaina religion. 101

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Then Shri Virchand sailed for America to attend the Congress of World Religions to represent the Jaina religion. Amongst the other representatives was the great Swami Vivekananda. The Congress of World Religions was a unique gathering of leaders of world religions, all intelligent, devout and eager, learned and anxious to express and present the principles of their religion and to learn from the others. It provided a great opportunity for comparative study of different religions. Many tolerant minds had thought of some such gathering and some attempts were said to have been made before in that direction ; but the Congress held at Chicago was the first of its kind and has remained the last. It was great and unique in its conception, representation, and honesty of purpose. Those were the days of rank orthodoxy. There was very little education in the sense in which it is understood now. Education was only taking its roots. The peoples' mind was overridden by superstition and narrow cramped ideas of life. Some protests were raised against Shri Virchand's going to America even for such a laudable object. It was considered to be a sin to cross the seas and go to foreign lands. But Shri Atmaramji Maharaj was a very far-sighted saint and he did not mind such protests and gave his blessings to Shri Virchand going to America to attend the Congress. The Congress which was also known as the Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago in U.S.A. during September 1893. It lasted for 17 days from 11th September 1893 to 27th September 1893. 102

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When all the representatives of various religious presented and expounded principles and philosophy of their religions particularly they dealt with such topics as the origin of the universe, the existence of God, the causes of suffering, happiness and misery in the world, the ultimate purpose of life and ethics. Shri Virchand delivered several speeches inside and outside the Congress, which created deep and abiding impressions on the mind of the American people. He.expounded to them what is this universe, whether there is any being called God as the creator of this universe, what is the ultimate purpose of life and such other things. He explained to them (the nine principles in this universe), SaDdravya (the six substances), (the four states of existence), (five great and small vows of conduct), (the ultimate state of soul when liberated from Karma), EIG (the assertion of truth from particular aspect), (the principle of Jaina Philosophy which explains that a particular statement is true from a particular aspect and not true from another aspect). is a principle, which attempts to try and reconcile various points of view and is a peculiar contribution of Jainas to the attainment of knowledge. His speeches were very much appreciated and made a deep impression about the Jaina religion as a rational religion on the mind of the American public. An eminent contemporary American wrote about him at that time in very eloquent terms. He said that "A number of distinguished Hindu scholars, philosophers and religious teachers attend 103 a

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ed and addressed the Parliament; some of them taking rank with the highest of any race for learning, 'eloquence and piety. But it is safe to say that no one of the oriental scholars was listened to with greater interest than was this young layman of the Jainas as he declared the Ethics and Philosophy of his people". Priests, public men and the press spoke in eulogistic and glowing terms and paid tributes to his scholarship, learning, intelligence and culture. One Hon. E. B. Sherman, who was a master in Chancery of the United States, Circuit Courts said about Shri Virchand that "It has rarely, if ever, been my good fortune to meet a man, whose reading and culture have been so wide and varied, and who withal has so sweet, sincere and teachable a spirit as Mr. Gandhi." At the time the Congress was held the knowledge of the American public about India and the life and culture of her people was scanty. India was believed to be the land of heathens having no culture and no civilised life. It was believed to be the land of the Maharajas, tigers and cobras. Many charitable-minded men and societies sent Christian missions to civilise the people here and impart culture and religion to them. The Christian missionaries, who had come down to India had, either out of ignorance, absence of proper understanding or by making unwarranted generalisations from stray facts or instances, deliberately spread false, incorrect, twisted and perverse notions and ideas about Indian life, culture, civilization and religions. During his stay in America, he took an opportunity to correct 104

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them. His mind rose in revolt against this state of things and led forthright emphatic and direct attacks on the ignorance and perverse ideas of the American people about India. His language was direct and forceful and his expression was fearless. He exposed the propaganda and activities of the Christian missionaries working in India Shri Virchand was a polyglot. He knew many languages, as many as 14 languages. He was also a student of Buddhism and Vedanta Philosophy. He had acquired knowledge of Christianity and Western Philosophy. He also had knowledge of Yoga and Occultism. He had made a comparative study of various philosophies, which equipped him for talks on various subjects with confidence. Shri Virchand was gifted with a fine and charming personality. He had a fairly tall, stately, wellbuilt figure. He had well chiselled well-proportioned features and a fine, brilliant and lustrous face. For his American sojourn, he had selected a dress, which added charm to his personality. He put on a royal purple robe and a gold-coloured turban. He had round his waist a white sash with a knot on the right and two ends hanging to his knees. He also wore oriental shoes. This make-up created an oriental and hallowed atmosphere round him. He looked like a priest, sober, serene and peaceful, eager to achieve his object. His speeches at the World Congress and outside created such a deep and brilliant impression that the American people began to love and like him. Some men were really attracted towards the prin 105

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ciples and practice of the Jaina religion. He was requested by them to extend his stay in America and give them lessons in Jaina philosophy and practice. He delivered a series of illuminating lectures in important cities in America like Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington. Wherever he went he was very cordially received and he created an atmosphere of love and liking for the Jaina religion. Some persons were so much attracted that they began to practise Jaina ceremonies and observe rituals. He had established a Society for the promotion of Jaina religion which was called Gandhi Philosophical Society, where he conducted study classes in Jaina religion. He stayed in America for about two years and returned to India in 1895 A.D. On his arrival in India, he was accorded a very cordial and enthusiastic welcome in Bombay. His mind was so much imbued with religion and social service that he did not think of his profession or any business for his material well-being. He devoted himself to further study of Jaina philosophy and other comparative philosophies. In Bombay, he started an institution called "Hemachandracharya Class" for the promotion and spread of the theory and practice of the Jaina religion. He delivered there various lectures on difficult and abstruse subjects like "The Doctrine of Karma", "Ultimate principles", etc. He was invited to deliver discourses under the auspices of the Arya Samaj, Buddhiwardhak Sabha and Theosophical Society. While he was doing such useful work here, he was again requested by his American friends to pay 106

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them a second visit and give instructions in Jaina religion. He considered it good in the interest of his religion that he should accept the invitation and go to America again. He sailed for America second time in the year 1896 A.D. His fame had spread to England and other European countries, where also he was invited to give discourses on Jaina religion. On his second tour to the Western countries, he divided his time between America and England. He delivered his lectures and conducted study classes for six months in America and for six months in England. While in England, he kept term at one of the Inns of Court for qualifying himself for the Bar. He was then called to the Bar but he did not practise. Advocacy for mundane causes for money did not attract him. He preferred to remain a barrister for his religion. He had travelled to France, Germany and other places in Europe and delivered discourses on the Jaina religion. His discourses were very much appreciated and he was liked and loved by the people there. In 1898 Shri Virchand was called away from this useful work in Europe. An appeal in the matter of Shatrunjaya Tirtha had to be preferred to the Secretary of State for India. He was selected for the task and entrusted with that appeal. For the purposes of this appeal, he again went to England and strove for winning the appeal, which brought him well-deserved success. While he was in England, his health suddenly took a turn for the worse. He had to leave England abruptly though luckily he had successfully finished 107

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his work of appeal. He returned to India but within only a few weeks after his return on 7th August 1901, Shri Virchand made good-bye to this frail world. He was only 37 years of age. He was a brilliant promising young man, full of hopes and aspirations of service to his religion and community. Such an eventful life of many useful and important activities for the religion, full of promise for the future was prematurely cut off to the utter dismay and sorrow of the Jainas.

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SHREE VALLABHSURI SMARAK NIDHI (Registered under Bombay Public Trust Act) With Hearty Blessing from Acharya Shri Vijaysamudrasuri Maharaj Agamprabhakar Muni Shri Punyavijayji Maharaj SMARAK NIDHI SAMITI Shri Sakarchand Motilal Mulji Shri Fulchand bhai Samjibhai Shri Ramanlal Nagindas Parikh Shri Jesinglal Lallubhai Shah Shri Chandanmal Lalchandji Shri Fatehchand Jhaverbhai Shri Nanchand Raichand Jhaveri Shri Babalchand Gabhruchand Shri Kantilal D. Kora Shri Ramanlal C. Shah Shri Ratanchand Chunilal Dalia, Hon. Treasurer Shri Jagjivandas Shivlal Shah, Hon. Secretary Shri Umedmalji Hajarimalji, Hon. Secretary

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