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Jainism in a Global Perspective
afresh with undiminished interest to every human being born on earth."
Jainism answers the eternal question for today and tomorrow by clearly indentifying the responsibility of humans - the most superior and advanced among living creatures. The identification of the obligation has both spiritual connotation as well as realistic and practical implication in day-to-day life.
Further more Jainism has ingrained in it a continuous search of fulfilment of this responsibility taking into account that nature and other living beings also in their turn fulfil their responsibilities and do a lot of good to humans - be it the sun and the moon, the soil and the vegetation, the forests, rivers and oceans, animals and other living creatures. It is indeed the reason why Hindus regardcow as a "Sacred Animals and many Jaina temples have in their precincts bird clinics.
To quote an American Jaina from his delightfully reflective poem: "The trees were dancing gaily in the breeze, Why do you so dance, O Tree? I asked" Nodding their foliage merrily they replied : "We bore the searing heat of the sun, Giving shade to the weary traveller and the dropping bird, We readily offred our fruit to the hungry; should we not dance now, Happy in the fulfillment of fortitude and compassion"
In the contemporary world, humans have grossly neglected their responsibility towards nature and other living beings.
Despite prohibition by United Nations and wideranging national laws and international conventions global trade in vanishing exotic species like apes, sea turtles, giant pandas, cheetahs and elephants in running at almost US$ ten billion a year next only to illicit trade in drugs and arms, Cynide is being sprayed in coral waters to scoop up tropical fish. Fur farms breed confine, strangle or asphyxiate foxes, minks and rabbits, Cosmetic industries squeeze or scrape openings near the reproductive
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