Compendium of Jainism

SR No.: 001202
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar
Publication Year: 1980
Total Pages: 352
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 341

MODERN THOUGHT
329
thereafter. It is a matter of gratification to all lovers of animal life that the movement for vegetarianism and prevention of cruetly to animals has been gradually attracting greater number of Westerners to be its votaries. All pious and great thinkers in the world over have sung in praise of mercy and compassion for life and tried to propagate the sam:.
We are living in a world of chronic conflicts and in constant dread of war. Robert Bridges, the great poet Laureate of England said :
“needless taking of life putteth Reason to shame, and men so startled at bloodshed that all homicide may to a purist scem mortal pollution of soul.
the duty of mightiness is to protect the weak; and since slackness in duty is unto noble minds a greater shame and blame than any chance offence ensuing on right conduct, this hath my assent that where there is savagery there will be war."7
Even though the Charter of the United Nations signed on June 26, 1945 at the Conference of International organisation in San Francisco, California, stated that the peoples of the United Nations were determined to save the succeeding generations from the scourge of war and “to reatham faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women......", there have been wars and the averments of good neighbourliness and mutual tolerance have remained a dead letter. The reason is that the warring nations forget the dignity and sacredness of human lise. Mahatma Gandhi has established the supremacy of moral force of Ahimsā in India's battle for freedom against a formidable nation. He said that if love was not the law of life, life would not have persisted in the midst of death. “The law of love will work, just as the gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not...... The more I work at this law, the more I feel the delight in life, the light in the scheme of universe." It is the faithful adherence to this principle alone