Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 006901
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation
Publication Year: 2009
Total Pages: 298
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 5 MB

Page 265

WONGAN
The Jaina Philosophy truth is that there is no equivalent word for writing or to write in the Vedas."
But my American brothers and sisters, the argument for the more ancient history of India than the date of the Vedas, that is to say the committal of the Vedic hymns to writing which is conceded to have been done two thousand years before the birth of Christ, will be found in the study and comprehension of the Vedas themselves. In their composition in the fullness of expression, in the sublimity of thought, in the perfection of imaginary, and in the simplicity of detail, they show a lineage and point to evolutions, gradations and acquired perfections, that imply untold centuries of human development in thought, in speech, in art, in religion, in philosophy and in all the considerable factors of great, but unrecorded civilizations.
Such monuments of learning, both subtle and simple, suggesting a knowledge of nature and of man which only centuries upon centuries of growth can answer for, cannot be considered as modern, even as similar monuments of Egypt, of Greece, or of the Hebrew nation, but must antedate them all and in a sense which will yet be appreciated, prove to be their motherhood. In closing this part of my utterance to you, I will quote one more passage from the same distinguished authority that I have already named Prof. Max Muller says If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth power and beauty that nature can bestow - in some parts a very paradise on earth - I should point to India If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of the choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problem of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant - I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have been nurtured
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