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108
FUNDAMENTALS OF JAINISM
The Rig Veda has been subjected to a great deal of criticism by friend and foe in recent times, but no one has found in its four corners aught but the worship of such things as the sun, clouds fire and the like. There is no trace of the essentials of the Hindu Religion, as they are known to-day, in the hymns of the great Veda. Transmigration and Karma. renu yoga are not to be found in the Rig Veda, or at least have to be spelt out with great labour from the text. The summum bonum nirvana-itself is not present to the mind in the medley of what appears to be pure nature worship.
European scholars have in reality not found anything but superstition and idolatry in the poetry of the Rig Veda. If this view be taken to be true, then the purport of the Veda would hardly be termed religion by any thoughtful person, seeking to know what salvation implied and how was transmigration to be brought to an end, karma broken through and nirvana attained. As such, it would not be worth the while of Jaina to seek te establish the greater anciency of his own religion, which from the earliest times known has consistently taught the path to Bliss and Blessedness in nirvana by the destruction of karmas. For it is frankly admitted in Jainism that superstition and Enlightenment are coeval. Indeed the 'Light' may disappear from time to time and reappear again, but superstition in one form or another is more or less continuous. The position would then simply be this, that among religions Jainism would be the oldest, but amongst the creeds that fostered naturel worship that of the Rig Veda would be taken to be the most ancient.
But this view is falsified by a scientific study of comparative religion. What this study has revealed clearly to me is that underlying this very seeming nature-worshiplies hidden a scientific teaching and a doctrine which is indentical in all respects with the Teaching of the Jinas. The Sun for instance is emblematic of the fulness of Kowledge and not a gigantic moving star; Indra is the soul embodied in matter; Agni is Tapascharana which leads to release from the bondage of karma and transmigration. Those scholars who took the gods of the Rig Veda to stand for nature powers did not have their attention drawn to the possibility of a secret religious or spiritual interpretation, and therefore merely put
