Jaina Gazette 1928

SR No.: 034890
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 502
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

Page 365

200
THE JAINA GAZETTE
cies of Hinduism, as he saw it, could not be glossed over nor hidden away from sight even before his own inner self.
Having knocked, however, at the gates of Christianity, he retraced his steps towards his ancestral religion and took to Hinduism albeit with a tinge of Christianity.
His correspondence with Tolstoy must have also influenced his religious beliefs, specially when he realised that Christianity, as Tolstoy interpretted it, had room for the Passive Resistance movement as he conceived it for the relief of sufferings of his countrymen in South Africa. Probably what led to his final decision against Christianity was his extreme vegetarianism, which did not find a sufficient satisfaction in the Christian doctrines and precepts.
Only a few years back when I had occasion to point out to him the incomparable excellence of the Message of Christ, he remarked that even so far as the New Testament was concerned there was no prohibition or disapproval of the slaughter of animals. To him the animal life is so very important and precious that he cannot approve even of the silence of the New Testament (sometimes the silence even turns into approval), with regard to this question.
What moulded his mind and temperament with regard to such questions and religious beliefs in general was more than anything else teachings of a Jain merchant named Rajchandra, whose writings evinced a very deep study of Jain Philosophy and Religion. These books are intensely ethical and have earned from the Jains his reputation almost of a later-day Saint.
*
Jainism like Buddhism is mainly an ethical religion and is more or less materialism in its outlook. It does not recognise God but sees of the Universe as a system of Law and Order without beginning and without end. Though it does not recognise any one Prophet, it recognises several Tirthankars great men who by their power of mind and religious exercises have been a powerful force for good in the world.
Jainism believes in God as the Most Perfect and Supreme Being but not as the creator and ruler of the World. Ed. J. G. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat