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THE MESSAGE OF JAINISM
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feast a brother Jaina, especially on the completion of a fast of long duration. It also accounts for the readiness with which a Jaina community or a Jaina institution hastens to receive a foreign scholar who happens to be, a student of Jainism. It is significant that the learned activity of such a scholar in connection with Jainism is looked upon as carrying an undoubted religious merit in it.
And last, but not least, it also explains the unspeakable pleasure and devotion with which a Jaina family sees approching towards their door the saintly monk or nun for the purpose of receiving their alms. Their joy becomes evident as the holy monk or nun enters the house with the greeting of “ Dharmalabha”-“May you attain the vision of "religion!” or a similar greeting, and allows the lord or lady of the house to put a small quantity of eatables into their bowl. And even this is accepted on a clear understanding that the action involves no direct or indirect injury to anybody, and that everything is in strictest accordance with the rules of monastic conduct and decency.
Now, I have been asked several times to affirm the truth of a strange story: Do the Jainas carry the virtue of charity so far as to cause, now and then, some poor wretch whom they pay off, to yield his body as a pastureground where lice and fleas and other similar creatures can have their fill? Let me say that, according to my firm belief, this horrible allegation must be nothing but a bold invention. And if, against all probability, it be true that some misguided fanatic did such a thing, then he must have surely acted in straight opposition to the basic tenets of
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com