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mental attitude without which a real advancement of human culture is not possible. We are living in a generations which, by all means imaginable, encourages a boundless egotism on one side, and on the other, an unrestrained violence offered to living creatures, in the shape of slaughter and war and misery; and then we think that our egotism can be satiated by regardlessness towards others, and that the violence we suffer can be abolished by our doing violence to others. Has there ever been a greater and more fearful mistake? Why not acknowledge now that we have been wrong, and that the way we have taken to, must lead to a hopeless degeneration ? Why not comprehend at last that egotism cannot succeed, unless it dissolves lead to perfect individual bliss ? This clear and simple axiom is the basis of that time-honoured doctrine which forms the legacy of the last Arhat, and which, even if taken as a symbol, still represents such a noble image of Eternal Truth.
Having been asked so often as to what I think to be the merit of Jainism as a practical religion, I have tried to give a short answer to-day, which the general public might be able and willing to follow, at first sight, it might appear to be a one-sided answer, beacuse it is based solely on the problem of the mutual relations of individual and society. Still, this problem being one of vital importance, and it being, as I said before, the very touch-stone by which the value expatiations may stand, as a kind of introduction into the spirit of Jainism.
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