Jainism and World Problems

SR No.: 006708
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1934
Total Pages: 240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 231

MR. C. R. JAIN
CORRESPONDENCE
CORRESPONDENCE
Garmisch, Bavaria June 25th, 1931.
Dear Friend,
You will be angry with me for not having written to you sooner and for not having thanked you for the sending of your new booklet entitled, "Jainism, Christianity and Science," which I have read with the greatest interest. I have no doubt, that there is a connection between the teachings of Christ and your religion, but I am still of the opinion, that you are wrong in stating that Jesus' life is a myth. It certainly is much less a myth, I think, than the lives of your saints, which I absolutely believe to have existed and which I also would venerate if I came to India. When we think in what times Jesus appeared and among what kind of people he taught when we further realize, that his life was written only long after his death, isn't it quite natural that things have been misunderstood and fibs have been told about him in order to make his life more interesting. This is surely the case of the wedding at Cana when he is said to have changed water into wine, it is also certainly the case, when he is supposed to have touched meat and fish, because I am sure he has not injured a fly. It will be the same with his omniscience. To me it matters little, whether the man I am looking up to is called Mahavira or Jesus, but to the western mind the theory or teaching, which you believe in, that for so and so many thousand years there will be not a soul any more becoming equal to your Tirthamkaras, and no matter what it does, can't reach Nirvana, is quite ununderstandable. I think though I am not a Catholic, that, for instance, among the Catholic saints there are quite a number who I believe have reached that place or what you think it to be. I also believe, that
228