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The Heritage of the Last Arhat
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character and tradition. If a religion has succeeded in fulfilling its task well, its doctrines must guarantee a state of perfect and permanent harmony between the well-being of the individual and that of society under whatever conditions imaginable. It is obvious that reversely, the degree and constancy of perfection characterizing the harmony of the above two factors, must allow us to judge of the merit of the religion by which it is being vouched for.
Measured by this standard, there can be no question as to the high value of Jainism, that time-honoured religion, which goes back to the teachings of Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, the great contemporary and countryman of Gautama Buddha, and to his predecessors : for its teachings seem to guarantee indeed “the greatest happiness of the greatest number' not only of men, but of living beings, under all circumstances imaginable. This is why I make bold to draw your attention on this extra-ordinarily fascinating and important subject today. Perfect Social Welfare Warranted by Jainism
According to Jainism, everything that lives has got a soul, or, to speak in the beautiful, concise language of the Scriptures, is a soul. And all the souls are fellow-creatures : the godlike recluse in his purity and unshakable peace, the active man of the world with his never resting ambitions, the innocent infant and the criminal, the lion and the nightingale, the cobra and the dragon-fly, the green leaf and the rose flower, the tiniest particle of water and the smallest of the corpuscles that compose the shining crystal, each of those myriads of beings that form the wings of the breeze, and of those that waver in the scarlet glow of fire : all are fellow-creatures, all are brothers. For all have got bodies, all have got senses, all have got instincts, all take food and digest it, all multiply, all are born and die, all are capable of suffering and enjoying, and all bear the germs of perfection within themselves. That means, all are able to develop, during the long chain of their respective existences subsequent to one another, their innate dispositions of perception, knowledge,
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