First Steps to Jainism Part 2

Author(s): Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur

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First Steps o Jainismt
more information on the subject may be aroused. Even this will be a source of satisfaction to the authors. For those who are keen for more knowledge, there is abundant literature available on the subjects, some indications whereof will be available in the appendices, which are also scholarly treatises on the subjects. Thus this book will provide not only elementary knowledge as first steps to the subjects, but will also supply some advanced knowlege thereof, and the matter included herein may prove of interest to the laymen as well as the scholars.
4. For obvious reasons this book should be read in continuation of Part I, in which indications were given about its contents. However, Part I dealt with the basic information about distinctive features of Jain religion, as also the path prescribed thereunder for alround development of the human personality, man's place in the universe and his duties to himself and his fellow creatures. We give in the following paragraphs the scope of chapters in this book in brief:
5. The Doctrine of Karma: In the first chapter of this book we have dealt with 'The Doctrine of Karma'. In Jain metaphysics Doctrine of Karma occupies the same supreme place as God occupies elsewhere as the main moving force. Though the concept of Karma is accepted in all systems of Indian religions "in no other system, perhaps, has Karma been taught to be of such concrete, realistic, physical nature," as in Jainism, where Karma have special significance as Material particles with pychophysical qualities and distinctive powers of being attached with the soul and giving results. In this chapter an attempt has been made to describe the Karma in their various aspects and varieties. We have drawn heavily on Dr H. V. Glasenapp's research work 'The Doctrine of Karma in Jain Philosophy' which was published in Germany in the beginning of this century and was published in India in English in 1942. It is indeed an exhaustive treatise on the subject of Karma and an example of German scholarship and painstaking study. The degree of Ph.D. was granted to the author in 1914 for this work by the Bonn University. We have thought it fit to include in the appendices not only the Preface to the German edition by Dr. H. V. Glasesnapp (as App. A), but also the Foreword to the English edition by Rev. Dr. R. Zimmermann of St. Xavier College, Bombay (as App. B), which we found very useful, as well as interesting, and think that these will be liked by the readers. It may also help in For Private & Personal Use Only