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Fundamentals of Jainism
INTRODUCTION
THE METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY ( अनेकान्तवाद )
The very first thing the follower of Jainism is required to impress upon his mind is the fact that the path of salvation consists in Right Belief, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, called the three Jewels (a) by the Jaina philosophers.
It is a self-evident truth that the successful achievement of an object of desire depends on the scientific validity of the means employed for the purpose: and equally evident is the fact that in all our pursuits and occupations we only resort to those methods of securing the end in view which have a causal connection with its accomplishment. The universal Law of Cause and Effect, thus, is the determining factor of all human, that is to say rational, activity, and it is obvious that nothing but confusion, disappointment and discomfiture, to say nothing of the pain and suffering which inevitably follow the baffled endeavours of mankind to secure some object of desire, can result from a disregard of this self-evident truth. The truth is that chance has no voice in the order of nature, and cannot be relied upon as a rational method of securing any desired end.
The law of cause and effect also holds good in the region of spiritual science, notwithstanding its emphatic denial by semi-trained theologians at times. For, were it otherwise, spiritual emancipation would have to fall within the uncertain domain of chance, and the method of the attainment of the ideal of the soul would be deprived of its rational basis of efficacy, leaving mankind to grope in the darkness of uncertainty and doubt by no means a happy predicament.
