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

Page 748

THE SIDDHANTA...
727
precise with them. Where this necessity has been ignored, and inexact definitions accepted in place of true description, nothing but confusion-oft times of the worst possible type-has resulted from the error. Buddha's inability to define Nirvana, of which mention will be made again later on, and Shankaracharya's concept of Brahman as the Absolute, to become which is the chief desideratum in Vendanta, may be cited in illustration of the point. The modern theological conception of God is the outcome of a similar lapse from precision of thought.
All true definitions involve a description of the relations in which a thing stands to other things, not an isolation of it from them; and since none of the things is without relations, relativity is the true feature of all proper and philosophical definitions. If philosophically inclined dabblers in theology will only bear this in mind, they will very soon discover the true light of wisdom dawning upon their souls, and will then speedily realize that shouting oneself hoarse in praise, or condemnation, of misconceived ideas is, in no sense, the path of salvation.
It is high time that those who take pride in belonging to a missionary religion did understand the nature of the evil which results from the spreading of the ideas and traditions of men, in place of the doctrines of religion. It is nothing short of down-right wickedness to implant the seed of ignorance and vague mysticism in the minds of men ; and yet this cannot be avoided so long as the teacher, or the preacher, as the case may be, only dabbles in high