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Jainism in a Global Perspective
the basis of its rationality, on the basis of how it is conceived. I think it is important for us to celebrate these cultures of different religious traditions of the world. I am not only speaking of the tenets, the dogmas, the ways of worship. I am speaking of the culture of religions. A culture of religions is extremely important. That is what I call residues of what remain after all that we have gone through and this is where I think the tributaries will make up the mainstream. The tributories of the culture of religion will contribute understanding not only of ourselves but of others. The first precept of culture is consideration for others. In fact, civilization cannot be without a concern and consideration for others for it is founded on the principle of inter-dependence and reciprocity. We have the concept of culture which determine how we dress, what we eat, how we live, how we talk, how we conduct ourselves in relation to others. Every single institution in the history of human-kind is influenced by the concept of culture and some of these concepts of culture are eternal as well as relative to time and place. In a tropical country, you would not like to dress as you would in an alpine climate. These are relativity to the situation but on the other hand, there is a certain fundamental fasciculus of norms and forms which are important. This fasciculus of norms and forms is something which interact constantly with each other. It is not so if we discovered the globe and that we have invented it in 20th century. The world has been for a very long time whether the indigenous Americans living here knew about the world, or not whether the west knew about the east or not. What is important is that there is a quest of reaching out to our universe. There is an inner space and an outer space. They must corelate and that co-relation is established by the building role of culture and education. I came across a description of what education and culture can do for inter-faith harmony. My wife would be pleased to hear it because it refers to an experiment conducted in her college in Calcutta. There in a book by Barren Eric Pamstier, 'World's Crisis and Faiths', in which a very beautiful example is given. I will read this to you in his own words. He says "in this connection it is of some interest to note and experiment which has taken place in non-sectarial Gokhale Memorial Girls School in Calcutta. The School included in its ranks orthodox Hindus, Muslims, and Christians Unitarian ministers, a Jain was also invited. They were invited to organise religious instructions to the pupils,
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