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But Uttaradhyayan is not merely a scripture that teaches social behaviour, it is pregnant with potent preaching about spiritual life, sermons that evoke feelings of renunciation and teachings that guide to remain alert, cautious as well as duty-bound every moment. On one
hand this Sutra presents the revolutionary thoughts of Bhagavan Mahavir and on the other o it contains, entwined within it, the message of analyzing religion with wisdom and intellect.
All said and done the whole Uttaradhyayan Sutra is a scripture amalgamating social and spiritual ways of life.
The prominent place Gita and Dhammapada occupy in Vedic and in Buddhist traditions respectively is occupied by Uttaradhyayan in Jain tradition. Study of Uttaradhyayan shows the path of progress in life. This Edition
Many good and attractive editions of Uttaradhyayan Sutra have been published till date. I cannot claim that my effort is better than them because I feel ignorant and less equipped in comparison with the past acharyas and great scholars. However, I am confident that my effort to produce this Sutra with illustrative presentation of the allegoric narrative and some important information is unique and would be useful for general readers. I find that most of the authors direct their writings at scholarly readers and hardly worry about general readers. By being a work popular in masses does not in any way reduce its level or importance. It is my strong belief that a book or scripture that is useful for masses proves to be much more valuable and important; in fact, the works for scholarly consumption mostly end up in book cases as decoration.
During the diamond jubilee year of the initiation of Pujya Pravartak Bhandari Shri Padmachandra ji M. S., we, all devoted disciples, are filled with joy that on this pious occasion we have been able to place in his lotus-hands this gift in the form of a new work for the benefit of masses.
Renowned Jain scholar Sri Srichand Surana has shouldered, with affection and devotion, all responsibility of editing and production, including the difficult task of getting the illustrations made. Many generous devotees have given financial contributions to make this publication possible. I pay my hearty thanks to them and believe that this unique effort of publishing Illustrated Agams will establish a new dimension in the field of editing and publishing of Jain canon (Agam) and get wide spread in due course. Second Edition
This project of publication of Illustrated Agams is now reaching its conclusion. Till
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