________________
132
ECONOMICS OF MAHAVIRA
and would not have restrained himself from the mad race. It is only now being realised that if pollution is not minimised, there would be no alternative but annihilation. The emergence of the problem (of environment) should, therefore, be welcome.
Today, this problem has already assumed serious proportions. We used to read in scriptures when the sixth ara ushers in, certain untoward things would happen, but nobody was concerned about it. Todays' humans can clearly see that the sixth ara has already arrived before them. The problem of environment is before us and man has got entangled in the problems of economics. He is continuing to dream of prosperity while distress in the form of environment is threatening him right into his face.
Holistic View Our point of veiw has become partial and this partial point of view is the root of all problems. If we had thought about it from an integrated perspective, the problems would not have blown up to such an extent. What I think is right, and what you think can also be right — unless this approach is not developed, our problems will remian unresolved."
Mahavira had said that the root of all religions is holistic philosophy and the root of all sins is the philosophy of untruth. Violence, untruth, non-celibacy, anger, vanity are all sins, but the biggest sin is mentality of untruthfulness, The person commiting violence drowns himself whether he harms others or not but falsehood destroys thousands of people. It is, therfore, necessary to change the attitude of untruthfulness. It has been said in scriptures: Samm 'inei n karea pawam - a person possessing a holistic point of view cannot commit a sin. A person with a partial point of view is the basic cause of the problem of pollution.
Luxury and Cruelty The universe is perched on the sky, on the air and on water. The earth is perched on water, and on the earth are inhabitated all living beings. It has many deep layers. There was no question of damage to these layers, but man became so greedy and merciless that he started digging out the root itself. Not only the
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
