Account of Jainism

Author(s): Unknown
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 75

Jainism.
.75
We shall have to consider this aspect of the question later on. It may, however, be said here that for the scholar and the thinker, the question is not whether a religion satisfies the craving of a more or less unthinking mob; for, on this theory, the sacrificial rites of Aryan and Unaryan barbarians which seek to propitiate the gods by offerings of lives, may pretend to stand on higher grounds than those that are occupied by the best and subtlest speculations of our highest heads. In giving a verdict on such a charge as this, it is necessary therefore to see if it stands the test of intellectual and moral criticism. Judged from this standpoint, the war waged by Jainism against the fictitious power that professes to be able to set all Law at defiance and work mira - cles for the satisfaction of its favourites, is a war in the cause of truth and morality. There can be no indictment of Jainism on this ground. It would be better to examine the nature of its teaching, its aims and objects and its triump