Bondage and Freedom

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Divine Knowledge Society

Page 84

Gunratna Suri, the commentator of a Jain work on "Comparative Philosophy" says:
"Although the various schools of philosophy, through sectarian bigotry, differ from and contradict one another, still there are certain aspects of truth in them which would harmonize if they were joined into an organic whole."
The age-old saying of a coin having two sides is well known to this congregation. Jainism, however, makes this as one of its basic principles. It requires that any object, situation or controversy should be looked at from all aspects.
If an individual, a community or a nation, allows its vision to be narrowed by turning a deaf ear to the opinions of others, it is definitely heading for selfdestruction.
Jainism promises to reconcile all the conflicting schools, not by inducing any of them necessarily to abandon their favourite standpoints but by proving to them that the standpoints of all others are tenable. They may be representative of some aspect of truth which can, with some modification, be represented. The Integrity of Truth consists in this very variety of all its aspects.
This philosophy makes the Jain, catholic in his outlook and ever ready to understand the nature of other systems of theology.
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