________________
324
COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
institutions and universities are facing problems of discipline and some of them are on the verge of disruption, both moral and financial. Religion and ethics are heard more on platforms than in actual life private or public. There is a widespread feeling that we havereached a dicisive moment in our history when we must make a choice of an ideology which will solve the ills of present life.
Progress in science and technology face peculiar dangers. The two irreconcilable ideologics of communists and capitalists are itching to fling arms at each other knowing full well that they will ruin themselves along with many other innocent nations, if the die were cast. “The shape of the future” says Dr. Radhakrishnan, "gives us much concern. With all the resources at our command. with all the gifts with which we have been endowed, with all the powers that we have developed, we are unable to live in peace and safety. We have grown in knowledge and intelligence but not in wisdom and virtue. For lack of the latter, things are interlocked in perpetual strife. No centre holds the world together... The social pathos of the age is exploited by countless individuals in different parts of the world who pose as leaders and proclaim their foolishness as wisdom. We are sowing grain and weeds at random.”1
We have almost reached the edge of a precipice. The tragedy of the modern man is that he scorns spiritual values and worships mammon. For some years past, pursuit of riches, fame and the pleasures of the senses has been the goal of many people in all climes and countries; it absorbs the mind so much that it leaves no time to reflect on anything better. The pursuit has become more vigorous than at any other time before, in human history. By sensual pleasures the mind is enthralled to the extent of quiescence as if the supreme good were actually attained, so that it is quite incapable of thinking of any other object; when such pleasures have been gratified, it is followed by extreme malanchology, whereby the mind, though enthralled, is disturbed and dulled. The pursuit of honours and riches is likewise very absorbing, especially if such objects are sought for their own sake,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
