Digambar Jain 1915 Varsh 08 Ank 01

SR No.: 543085
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mulchand Kisandas Kapadia
Publisher: Mulchand Kisandas Kapadia
Publication Year: 1915
Total Pages: 170
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Digambar Jain, & India
File Size: 19 MB

Page 48

४२
>> सचित्र खास अंक. ८८
It will hardly be an exaggeration to feel that the mahasabha has closed its wearied eyelids in a very deep and perhaps unawakable sleep. Last: of all the legal huminary of Calcutta Babu Dhannulal Agarwala, Attorney at law-like the Bombay Sheth left us at a very short-almost no notice at all. The North, the East and the West Jain section of our community are left leaderless, headless. Important and complicated matters are on the anvil and very cautious and earnest handling is necessary. Large amounts of Public money are involved. Many works have to be supervised, continued and settled. community should wake up at this juncture and save itself if it can from utter ruin and dissolusion. This brings me to the grim question which is the head-line of my this year's article for the "Digambar Jaina" Life or Death for Jaina!
The
- [ वर्ष ८
a living organism. It attracted and absorbed non-Jains. The little
At the outset I must say that for other Indian communities, the question may be of reform and progress, but for us Jainas the problem resolves itself into the choice of one of the two alternatives. Live or die The instinct of self-preservation hastily grasps. the fist; but our continuous communal conduct points to the way, not of life, but of Death. One great mark of a living organism is its capacity to take in, to assimilate and make part and parcel of itself something of the none-self when Jainism was reborn in the great soul of Lord Mahavira, it was
datails of life one way or the other -except for monks-did not threaten to soil its lustre or destroy:its soul. Its cloak was not narrow, Its vast folds covered all humankind. All life, even the tiniest atom that may live, shared its tender compassion. Study, honesty, fearless independence, gentle feelings and strong character were the points for which Jainas were noted. For their religion as it was based on reasoned conviction, they gladly laid down their lives. Their word was law. A promise given meant scrupulous, performance, unless unavoidable impossibility intervened. No arriere Pensees dispoiled the sincerity of their speech. No mean regrets came to obstruct the actions which they detemined to do themselves cr which they led others to believe that they would do. This was the type of Jains whose daily example was worth miles of manuscripts of beautifully polished slokas or gathas of the learned moralist of the day. For these men, marwhich sacred bond, a riage was nothing could dissolve or dishonour, For these men dishonest trade or deceitful competition was as loathsome to bow as open theft or violent extortion. They avoided killing people by hurting their feelings as much as by drawing the keen blade of the knife or dagger on their throats.