Jain Journal 1970 01

SR No.: 520017
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 87
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 75

JANUARY, 1970
183
if not to the Jaina name—to the influence of his young companion Rajchandraji, the ascetic and compassionate Jaina.
18. But in our materialistic age, is not the ascetic and compassionate
Jaina-forgive me-a fossil ?
... living fossil ! To survive, a minority must do its home work well. A minority the Jaina is, historically less than one percent of the population. That he survives proves his work well done in his historical environment of famine, massacre, and incessant pressure to assimilate into the dominate religion since the second millennium B. C. Survival religion of all ages, we may call this solidly-knit Jaina community of the wealthy trading class under the consecrated care of its uncompromising ascetics. But the question really asks, can Jainism translate into the current scene ? Can the ascetic and compassionate Ahimsă communicate with the mini-sārī and the motor scooter on whom future survival depends ? All around the world, young people say they do not want words, they want action Ahimsā asks, do they want to talk action, or do they want to take action ? For Jainism is where the dynamic action is. Example : On Sept. 18, 1967, a Jaina took ascetic vows. Soul action! For he was jeweller, industrialist, millionaire, indeed conqueror of the crafts of our materialistic age. Very simply he chose not to stand at the end with empty hands. Honor to Sri Motilalji Jain. His kind of action recreates the spiritual dimension of the living Ahimsā that benefits all the world.
19. How can Jainism benefit the West in general and me in particular ?
... by its climate of minority existence. Incongruous, that a minority religion from the East should reaffirm free existence to the West. But today we see a depressingly carbon-copy West, a general tolerance of atomic overkill and a particular lack of minority identity. And group identity is the epic first step towards social manipulation, in turn, the fatal step for the individual. And the Jaina believes so truly in the individual that he believes his individual self is potential diety! We know this is minority belief. yet the more diversity, the more freedom for ourselves and for our countries. Ideal Western democracy is akin to four basic Jaina concepts : non-violence which is respect for other lives, nonabsolutism which is respect for other views, karma which is equality of justice, and equality of souls which is individual freedom. Hopefully, the restatement of these Jaina basics can benefit the West by recalling it to its own climate of freedom. How can Jainism benefit the particular Westerner, you and me? Already we have glimpsed an encyclopedic Jai