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Sramiana, Vol 59, No. 3/July-September 2008
encourages, by all means imaginable, a boundless egotism on one side, and on the other, an unrestrained violence offered to living creatures, in the shape of slaughter and war and misery: and then we think that our egotism can be satiated by regardlessness towards others, and that the violence we suffer, can be abolished by our doing violence to others. Has there ever been a greater and more fearful mistake? Why not acknowledge now that we are wrong and that the way we have taken must lead to a hopeless degeneration? Why not comprehend at last that egotism cannot succeed unless it dissolves in altruism, and that a reasonable altruism must needs lead to perfect individual bliss? This clear and simple axiom is the basis of that time-honoured doctrine, which forms the legacy of the last Arhat, and which, even it taken as a symbol, represents such a noble image of eternal truth.
Having been asked so often as to what I think to be the innermost secret of Jainism, and what its merit as a practical religion, I have tried to give a short answer to-day, which the educated reader might be able and willing to follow. At first sight, it might appear to be a one-sided answer, because it is based on the one problem of the mutual relations of individual and society : still, this problem is one of vital importance, and it is, as I said before, the only touch-stone by which the value of a religion can be objectively ascertained.
I think there can be no doubt that Jainism stands the best.
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