Jaina Gazette 1927

SR No.: 034889
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J L Jaini, Ajitprasad
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1927
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 195

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THE JAINA GAZETTE
We should not, however, think that some other agencies are responsible for the downfall of our nation. Jainism teaches us that we are the makers of our own fate. The roots of our bondage and suffering, in my humble opinion, lie deep in the inherent weaknesses of our own nation. Our political bondage and degradation are only the signs and external manifestation of our all round degradation-social, moral, religious and spiritual.
Two of the main reasons why a nation falls, in my opinion,
are:
individual self-seeking and subordination of reason to authority. In a healthy nation there should be perfect individual freedom in thought, but subordination of individual interests to the society in action. All our education should aim at this. We have to produce intellectual giants, who will obey no authority in their effort to discover the Truth but that of Reality and Factsphysical, mental and spiritual, but who in action will always keep the good of the society in view and will never do anything that harms it. Freedom in thinking and service in action should be the motto of our graduates. Our educational institution will be justified to exist, not when they send out mere commentators with an encyclopaedic memory of what they have received from others, enriching themselves at the cost of the daily meals of others, but only when they send out great thinkers with the broadest possible outlook on life and with the greatest possible zeal in adding to the wealth of the nation and rendering help to the needy. If an educational institution fails to do so, it is a drag on the nation.
I do not think that freedom in thinking will in any way go against the true interests of your religion. Jainism, I believe, is not such a hypothesis (I consider all religions and philosophies to be merely hypotheses to explain and guide life) that should fear the light of Reason, and the fire of free thought. True gold does not fight shy of the fire of doubts and tests. It rather requires being examined and heated before it can beautify the heart and the hand of a beauty. In the same way, a religious hypothesis, to be worthy of being accepted and followed, must undergo a critical and unbiased examination and comparison in order that it may broaden the head, soften the heart, and strengthen the hand of Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat