Jain Journal 2004 01

SR No.: 520153
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2004
Total Pages: 74
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 8

VINCENT SEKHAR, S.J. : JAINA PLURAL PERSPECTIVE
133
each of you we have appointed a right way and an open road. If God had willed he would have made you one community, but that he may try you in what is given to you. So be you forward in good works; unto God shall you return altogether and he will tell you of that wherein vou good works: unto God shall vou return altogether and he will tell you of that wherein you were at variance.” “Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?” Questions thus, it says that "No soul can believe, except by the will of God." Finally Islam advises people not to dispute with one another on the matter of religion, but to summon unto the Lord.
The Adi Granth of the Sikhs acknowledges the Lord's secrets in each one: “Some call on the Lord, Rāma, some cry, Khudā, some bow to Him as Gosain, some as Allah; He is called the Ground of Grounds and also the Bountiful, The Compassionate One and Gracious. The Hindus bathe in holy waters for his sake; Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Hindus perform pūjā; others bow their heads on namāz. There are those who read the Vedas and others--Christians, Jews, Muslims--who read the Semitic scriptures Some wear blue, some white robes, some call themselves Muslims, others Hindus. Some aspire to bahishat (Muslim heaven), some to svarga (Hindu heaven). Says Nānak, Whoever realizes the will of the Lord, he will find out the Lord's secrets!”0 And hence it asks, “The Hindus and the Muslims have but one and the same God, What can a mullah or a Sheikh do ?" 1
Jainism too believes that all the doctrines are right in their own respective spheres. But if they encroach upon the province of other doctrines and try to refute their views, they are wrong. “A man who holds the view of the cumulative character of truth never says that a particular view is right or that a particular view is wrong.”2 And hence, "those who praise their own doctrines and disparage the doctrines of
7. Quran 5,48, Ibid. p. 37 8. Qur'an 10.99-100, Ibid. p. 39 9. Qur'an 22.67, Ibid. 36 10. Adi Granth, Ramkali, M.5, p. 885, Ibid. p. 36 11. Adi Granth, Bhairo, p. 1158, Ibid. p. 35 12. Siddhasena, Sanmatitarka 1.28, Ibid. pp.39-40