Confluence of Opposites

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 20

GENERAL SURVEY
sics known to him. The problem of today is concerned not so much with the metaphysical analysis of discursive thought as with the bringing into a line of systems so diametrically opposed as Jainism, Vedicism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Judaism appear to be. This task, it is superfluous to add, has never been attempted before, though in recent times a few unqualified or half-qualified writers have endeavoured, from highly laudable motives of goodwill and buman love, to establish a somewhat far-fetched harmony between some of these creeds. As embracing all the diversified forms of belief, that is to say, in its entirety, the subject has never been approched bitherto, nor have the rootcauses of misunderstanding bel ween different religions been ever laid bare in the history of human thought.
With respect to the method of comparison), also, it has been a favourite method with those who bave gone before us to try to reconcile the diverse faiths to one another by pointing out and emphasizing a few features of resemblance in each one of them and by ignoring and minimising all kinds of differences in their teachings, as if they could be disposed of so easily-by merely being ignored. This method does not appeal to me as satisfactory, for there can be no true or lasting reconciliation so long as the differences remain unexplained, To arrive at true reconciliation, then, we must analyse these differences themselves to obtain their common unifying principle, if there be one underlying them. We shall have to dive deep beneath the surface of things