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or that it is totally desirable. If the system could be refined, if somebody could reactivate the inspiration of cooperation, then its usefulness cannot be rejected. On the other hand, exploitation has to be considered as a taboo.
We have seen that there is excessive exploitation where there is so much of compulsion and prohibition. Under compulsion, one has to make payment. This position is totally undesirable. We should express our opinion on this only after considering both aspects. In the context of the present problem, it should be maintained that selfishness and exploitation associated with interest should go out of interest. If this goes out, and only rulebound cooperation remains, as is being followed in the banking business, it appears to me that the question of rejecting it totally does not come in the context of practical reality. Perhaps, because of this when Bhagwan Mahavira enlisted unethical sources of income, he did not make any mention about interest. It appears that this aspect was not so clear in those times and everything was practised on the basis of co-operation. The conditions in the middle ages gave rise to the exploitative apsect of the practice and from that point of view, the prescription of Mohammad Saheb can be regarded as rational. He created an awakening against acts of exploitation. For Jain society, the question should be considered variously in the context of olden times of the middle ages and of today. In the context of the present age, the only question before the Jain society is that some steps should be taken in the direction of ending exploitation which has been associated with it and not in ending its usefulness.
Question: Does the principle of non-possession flourish from non-violence or non-violence flourish from non-possession?
Answer: That 'non-violence is the supreme religion' is regarded as the great saying of the Jain religion. How can I say that there is no truth in this. But I look at this truth the other way round. The first truth is ‘non-possession is the supreme religion', then comes another truth after it — 'non-violence is the supreme religion”. This is totally a psychological phenomenon that man does not acquire possessions for violence, but develops and acquires non-possession. The central point of possession or acquisition is man's own body. From there the awakening of.
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