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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
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twenty three prophets. Some believe that Jainism started with Lord Rishabhadeva, but such belief is not proper, as in view of the current ascending-descending wheel of time Rishabhadeva was the first prophet to promulgate Jainism but such numberless wheels of times have flourished with numberless prophets. Thus Jainism has no beginning and it is the most ancient religion therefore.
Some deny the varacity of the statement what is old is gold. But it is also essential to think how a particular thing could stand against the tides of time. A firm with a standing of two hundred years enjoys great reputation in the market and people can rely upon the firm without reservation. People do not deal with a newly floated concern so freely. Of course, Jainism tops the rest of the religions in matters of quality as well, but this was merely intended to argue out the case of antiquity attributed to Jainism.
Some hold, in considering the excellence, we must take into account number also along with time factor. Greater number of followers also is the criterion to judge the excellence of a religion ; but we have discussed this point of majority or number in our preceding discourses. It is a very slippery or deceptive factor to judge a religion from the number of its followers. In that case we shall have to afix numbers to the religions of the world. You cannot judge that a dealer is honest if more number of clients buy their goods from him. Clients multiply either due to prominent situation of the shop or good propaganda carried on by the dealer, or liberality of the dealer, or absence of such shop in the vicinity or gross ignorance of the customers. Therefore, greatness of a religion is to be decided from its merits and truthfulness.
Some say we are confounded by hearing contents of various religions and so it is advisable to combine all religions into one to eliminate the difficulty of choosing a religion for practice, but this proposition is devoid of any understanding of reality existing in the world. Variety is the very nature of the world and we cannot dispense with it. Those who advocate unity of all religions should also think why all the people of the world are not clad in uniform dress. Why do they not eat uniform food, practise uniform customs and follow uniform traditions? If all this is possible then only unity of religions is possible. Today the situation is entirely different. Even four ladies of the same family put on different
