Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
ends. Prayer is nourished by superstition in the bosom of ignorance, and withers at the first touch of reason. Born at the night-time of jnana (knowledge), it shines at her best in the house of Mysticism, the author of her being; but pales and withers if dragged into the powerful Sun of Intellectualism. It is for this reason that no one ever thinks of praying so long as he believes that he can reach his object through a chain of causes and effects, beginning with an effort on his part and ending at the goal. For example, we do not pray that our food might be cooked, our house built, letters. posted, and so on. A superstitious man will, however, immediately fall on his knees to pray the moment there is a break down of the causal connection between the means employed and the end to be attained. Accordingly, we do not pray in times of war that God might send our projectiles to a greater distance than the guns are able to throw them, or that a hundred enemies be killed with each stroke of the sword; but we do pray for victory when all we could do has been done, so far as our knowledge extends; and this because the causal connection between the efforts of men and victory depends on factors far more numerous than we are able to take into our calculation.
So far as the feeling of relief which arises from prayer is concerned, it is the outcome of a spirit of resignation. Just as the litigant who has well nigh worried himself to death over the intricacies of his lawsuit experiences a sudden feeling of soothing consolation on placing the matter in the hands of the most competent lawyer in the country, in the same way, and