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>> दिगंबर जैन
अंक १]
Huminity added the hue of heaven to their pure characters. They were too conscious of their human frailty to claim divine and exclusive honours because they were born Jainas not birth in a Jaina family but rebirth ⚫ into Jainism was their claim to merit. As men they provided the raw material for home life; as women they made the homes peaceful to come into and helpful to rise towards nir. wana. All that has changed now; some of us have become civilized by inane aping of the externals of the west without reaching the spirit that is the life and soul of its civilization. Most of us have become self-elected-selfstyled custodians and preservers of the great heritage of Peace and Brotherlines left to us by Lord Mahauira. But we show our conservative quality by claiming to own-per the status of managership-temples, the idols theirin and the funds; by owning public institutions simply because the community is dead or dying and their is no one to resist our claims. To traverse the poet I am monarch of all I survey, because my right their is none to dispute! Our Soidisant temple-managers and are owners of the funds in their charge because there is none to call them to account for the money. A pretty pass this for an ancient and prosperous community!
This is only one aspect of the conservative spirit, which, to mind, is a sign not merely of decay but of final dissolution, And a word. must be put in to avoid misunder
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standing when I say our present problem is of life and Death. I mean that of the Jainas: but by no means of Jainism. Jainism so for as it is indentical with truth must endure. It can not die. Nothing can kill it; not even the perversity of all the latter day Jainas. Its sweetness, its cogency, its power for good are as fresh and pérennial to day as at the samavsaran of lord Mahavira. Jainism, I fain believe, has already taken rebirth in the west. Its compassion (4) is the soul of all the humanitarian and lifeprotecting institutions of Europe and America. Its sober, commonsanse philosophy has already won the hearts of several of of our English brothers and sisters. Its simple creed already satisfies many European intellects; and its products of the past excite the admiration a love of Jainism is not dead. many learned men of the west. This Jainism is not dead. Indeed it is full of a new life. Only the garb is changed; its denomination is altered but it is the same old life giving necter in new jars. I have already adverted to the mismanagement of our public funds. Our social matters share the same fate. There is hardly any public opinion strong and defined enough to keep any control upon the vagaries of thought and action. of our people, The units of the Jaina community can do pretty just whatever they like and as they like it. Anti-Jaina practices are frequent and scandalously notorious and yet their is neither censure nor punishment. The pious horror of most of my
