Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 74

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
Our religious practices
True science can never differ from true religion.
existence is happiness and progress. All ethics teach how to attain the one and achieve the other. The question however remains what is happiness and what is progress? These are issues not yet solved in any satisfactory manner by the known system of ethics. The reason is not far to seek. The modern tendency is to separate ethics from physics or rational demonstration of the universe and thus make it a science resting on nothing but the irregular whims and caprices of individuals and nations.
Every religion has its philosophical as well as ethical aspect
The problem of the why and wherefore of existence is as old as the world and, whether under the name of religion or science, man has been trying to understand his position in nature. It has however become a fashion these days to regard religion as a mere matter of sentiment and to turn for all rational explanation to science. But is it not doubtful how far science is true to its own principle? True science can never differ from true religion. If the superstructure of theology is based on faith, the edifice of science stands on empirical dogmatism. I am no friend of the one or the foe of other but I have full faith in convertibility of knowledge and belief. Religion is not entirely a matter of sentiment, or science of reason. Deprived of their respective marks, religion and science are aspects of the one and the same thing. Truth wherever found is always one. The history of the world all round bear ample testimony to this
In India ethics have forever been associated with religion. Religion has forever been an attempt to solve the mystery of nature, to understand the phenomena of nature and to realize the place of man in nature. Every religion has its philosophical as well as ethical aspect and the later without the former has, in India, at least no meaning. If every religion has its physical and ethical side, it has its psychological side as well. There is no possibility of establishing a relation between physics and ethics but through psychology, Psychology enlarges the conclusions of physics and confirms the ideal of morality.
Relation of ethics to religion & science
What relation do ethics bear either to religion or science? Thou shall not commit murder? Why? The theologian would say because that is the commandment of God. The materialist would say because that is the command of the ruling authority. But why should God and Sovereign issue such commands? There is no rational reply. A system of ethics is of individual opinions and individual convenience. The aim of human
If man wants at all to understand his place in nature and to be happy and progressing, he must aim at that physical, psychological and moral development which can enable him to reach into the depths of nature. He must observe, think and act; he must live, love and progress. His development must be simultaneous on all the three planes. The law of correspondence rules supreme in nature; and the physical corresponds as