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ESSENTIAL PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM,
BUDDHISM AND JAINISM
Ladies and Gentlemen,
From the mystic philosophy of India, we pass to the everyday philosophy of the three great sects of the East, the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jainas.
When I was a small boy, about eight years old, I used to go with my father to hear the sermons of a. Jaina monk who happened to visit our town in those days. He delivered his sermons in a lecture hall specially built by my community. On one day, we went to the lecture hall half an hour earlier than the appointed time. After taking our seats we began to look with curiosity at some paintings on the walls of the lecture hall. One of them struck me most. It was the picture of a man holding steadfast the branch of a huge banian tree in the midst of a large well and an elephant standing at the brink of the well and trying with its mighty trunk to catch the man. At the bottom of the well there was a huge boa with its mouth open, ready to swallow the man. On each side of the well at the bottom there were four snakes with their hoods expanded, furiously hissing and ready to sting the man. Two rats, one white and one black, were eating away the trunk of the banian tree. On the top of a branch there was a honey-comb with a swarm of bees. The elephant while trying to catch the man moved that branch to and fro and caused some drops of honey to fall on the lips of the man. A monk, the minister of re
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