________________
156: Aspects of Jaina Religion
thought, convincing him that truth is not anybody's monopoly with tariff walls of denominational religion. It also furnished the religious aspirant with the virtue of intellectual toleration which is a part of ahimsā.
Human beings have limited knowledge and inadequate expression. That is why different doctrines are inadequate, at the most they are one-sided views of Truth which cannot be duly enclosed in words and concepts. Jainism has always held that it is wrong, if not dangerous, to presume that one's own creed alone represents the truth. Toleration is, therefore, the characteristic of Jaina ideology as propounded by Tirthankara Mahavira. Even the Jaina monarchs and generals have a clean d commendable record to their credit in this regard. The political history of India knows no cases of persecution by Jaina kings, even when Jaina monks and laymen have suffered at the hands of other religionists of fanatical temper. Dr. B.A. Saletore has rightly observed in this regard that "The principle of ahimsā was partly responsible for the greatest contribution of the Jainas to Hindu culture that relating to toleration. Whatever may he said concerning the rigidity with which they maintained their religious tenets and the tenacity and skill with which they met and defeated their opponents in religious disputations, yet it cannot be denied that the Jainas fostered the principle of toleration more sincerely and at the same time more successfully than any other community in India."
8. Encouragement to Social Welfare
Along with the maximum emphasis on the actual observance of ahimsā, Tirthankara Mahavira and the Jaina acharyas greatly extended the implications of ahimsa. They invariably stressed both the negative and the positive aspects of ahimsā. They strongly advocated that the concept of ahimsa should not be confined only to the negative side of it, that is, the avoidance of injury to the living beings of different categories, but should be consistently applied in the positive way, that is, in the direction of increasing the welfare of all living
