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“JAINISM - A WAY OF LIFE"
[Speech delivered as Chief Guest at the First Asian Jain Congress held at Singapore on March 3rd, 1990]
It is a great privilege to address this distinguished audience at this first ever-Asian Congress of Jains. The Singapore Jain Society deserves warm applause for this thoughtful initiative. Guests from abroad like me are deeply touched by the warmth, hospitality and the friendliness of the local Jain community and their singular devotion to the Jain religion despite living away from India for so many years. The practice of Jain way of life with such fervor and faith is greatly inspiring and I recall William Blake's poem.
"I looked for my soul But my soul I could not see I looked for God But God eluded me I looked for a friend And then I found all three"
Jain religion is one of the oldest religions of India. The names of the founder Rishabh Naath (or Adinaath), the first “Tirthankar”? (Prophet) and of other subsequent prophets appear several times in the Rig Veda and Yajurveda. This is indicative of the existence of Jainism even prior to the Vedic period (2500 B.C.-600 B.C.).
In his book "Indian philosophy” (Volume 1 page 287), Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan has confirmed ancient historicity of Jainism in the following words:
“Evidences are available to indicate that from early times even prior to the 1st century B.C., there were
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