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CHAPTER XV
DASA - DHARMA OR THE TEN SUPREME VIRTUES
"..... Virtue is an activity, and lieth not in doctrine and theory but in practice and conduct, co-ordinating potencies into energy,
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the preferential imitation of right action is THE HABIT OF VIRTUE;..
The Testament of Beauty
by Robert Bridges, Book IV, Lines 623-28.
There is no dearth of religions and philosophical doctrines in the world. What the world needs today is the sincere practice of those doctrines in daily life. In the hands of the priesthood, every religion becomes a ritual; with the ignorant, it becomes a mass of superstitious beliefs; it thus loses its scientific foundation.
The Jaina thinkers have taken care to see that religion becomes a way of life with a clear stream of reason to sustain it. In order that one should not lose sight of the ten supreme virtues in daily life, tradition has prescribed a festiva. called "Dašalakşaņaparva” to be observed for ten days devoting a day for the contemplation of one virtue. The Digambaras observe the festival from the fifth day of the lunar half of the month of Bhadrapada. The Svetāmbaras observe it as Paryūşaņa-parva from the full moon day of the month of Āşådha. The days are spent in fasting,
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