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aversion. The gateway of salvation is open to all. Jains do not believe in narrow outlook that, "Only the follower of Jainism can achieve emancipation, others will not." Moreover it is said in the Sūtrakrtānga (2nd cent. B.C.), the second earliest Jain work, that those who praise their own faith and views and discard those of their opponents, possess malice against them. Hence they remain confined to the cycle of birth and death.' In another famous Jain work of the same period, the Isibhāsiyam, the teaching of the forty-five renounced saints of Sramanic and Brahmanic schools of thought such as Nārada, Bhāradvāja, Mankhali-Gośāla and many others have been presented with due regards.? They are remembered as arhatrsi and their teachings are regarded as āgama. In Uttarādhyayana Sūtra also there is a reference to anyalinga-siddhās i.e. the emancipated souls of others sects. In the history of world religions, there is hardly any example in which the teachings of the religious teachers of the opponents sects were included in one's own scriptures with due esteem and honour. The verse highlighting the broad-outlook of Hemacandra (12th cent. A.D.) the celebrated pontiff of jain philosophy is really touching.He says
bhava bījāńkurajananā rāgādyakşaya mupāgata-yasya, brahmā vā vişnurvā haro-vā jino-va namastasmaiņ'.
Jains believe that the only way to attain liberation is destruction of attachment and aversion. On the one hand, in whom these two emotions have been totally wiped away, be He Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva or Jina, I salute all of them. Finally, we can say that from among all non-absolutist ācārya-s, Haribhadra was the most broad-minded. His tolerant attitude to the ācārya-s
Sūtrakrtānga Sūtra. Ed. Mishrimalji Maharaj. Trans. Shrichand Surana. Beawar: Āgam Prakāshan Samiti, 1991, 1.1.2.23. 2 Isibhāsiyāim. Ed. Welther Schubring. Ahmedabad: L.D. Institute of
Indology, 1979, verse-1.1. 3 Mahādevastotra of Hemachandra, op.cit., verse-44. ..
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