Mahavira and his Teaching

SR No.: 008019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 509
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Biography, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 12 MB

Page 160

JAINISM AND WESTERN INFLUENCES ON GANDHIJI
Russian church excommunicated him. Here are a few titles of some of his discourses: You shall not kill. Love one another. Why Christians have fallen on evil times generally and the Russian folk in particular. Christ's teaching to the children. Death penalty and Christianity. Religious tolerance. One could add the "Folk Tales" in which Tolstoy's maxim: Do not forgive evil with evil, nor force with force, love the evil with good: has been exemplified so often.
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Gandhi came to know Tolstoy through his discourse "The Kingdom of God is in you." There Tolstoy says "The history of the church is the story of gruesomeness and horror. Every church with its teachings of redemption and salvation, the orthodox faith above all with its idolatry shuts out the teachings of Christ."
Since time immemorial men have greeted each other with "Peace be with you", but despite that 28 million men are armed in Europe in order to solve their problems with the sword. Tolstoy's theme is the same as Thoreau's: the gulf between teaching and action. What is the solution? Tolstoy's reply: A Christian does not quarrel with his neighbours, he knows neither aggression nor force. On the contrary he suffers without offering resistance and through his attitude towards evil he frees not only himself, but also helps to free the world as such from all external powers. Tolstoy preached peaceful resistance, even if it were combined with sorrow, then serving or obeying evil governments.
Gandhi's first personal contact with Tolstoy was a long letter written in English on 1st October 1909, in which he reported to him on the civil disobedience movement in Transvaal. Tolstoy's reaction can be seen in an entry in his diary on 24th September (7th October) 1909. "Received a charming letter from a Hindu in Transvaal." And in a letter four days later to his close friend Vladimir Chertkov he writes: "The letter from the Hindu in Transvaal has moved me deeply." Tolstoy's reply of 7th (20th) October reads: "May God help our dear brothers and colleagues in Transvaal. The same fight between the soft and
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