Gandhi Before Gandhi

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

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GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
civilization of Egypt was built upon this doctrine and it was handed over to Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid who scattered it through Greece and Italy. It is the keynote of Plato's philosophy when he says that all knowledge is reminiscence. It was wholly adopted by the Neo Platonists like Plotintis and Proclus.
reaped, " are but the corollaries of that most intricate law of Karma. It solves the problem of inequality and apparent injustice seen in the world. The Karma in the Jain philosophy is divided into eight classes: those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth; those which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those which give one pleasure and pain, and those which produce bewilderment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely that a student of Jain Karman philosophy can trace any effect to a particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully and so clearly the doctrine of Karmas. Persons who by right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, destroy all Karmas and thus fully develop the true nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection, become divine and are called Jinas. Those Jinas who, in every age, preach the law and establish the order, are called Tirthankaras (religious guides).
The hundreds of millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains have made this doctrine the foundation of their philosophy, religion, government and social institutions. It was a cardinal point in the religion of the Persian. The doctrine of Metempsychosis was an essential principle of the Druid faith and was impressed upon your forefathers, the Celts, the Cauls and the Britons. Among the Arab philosopher's it was a favourite idea.
There are so many different planes and places of life that the mere study of the human life ought not to be applied to all the affairs of life. We have studied only a few forms of the life of plants, animals, human beings etc., but that is only the part which comes under the present development of our science. We are not able to study other forms of life, innumerable in the universe; therefore we ought not to apply the laws thus discovered to all forms of life. Our study is introspective because our idea is that the soul is able to know everything under the right circumstances.
The rites and ceremonies of the Romans, Druids and Hebrews expressed this truth forcibly. The Jews adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. John the Baptist was to them a second Elilah; Jesus was thought to be a reappearance of John the Baptist or one of the old prophets. The Roman Catholic purgatory seems to be a make ship, contrived to take its place. Philosophers like Schelling and Schopenhauer have upheld this doctrine. Theologians like Julius Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. And today it reigns over the Barman, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, Tartar, Tibetan East Indian and Ceylonese communities including at least 750 millions of mankind and nearly two third of the human race believes in this Law.
Although this doctrine is rejected throughout Europe and America by the Christians, it is accepted by the majority of mankind at the present day. It has been held as true by the mightiest Eastern nations. The ancient
Is it not shocking then that this great and grand philosophical deduction which the Hindus. Buddhists and Jains gave to the world centuries and centuries before the Christian era should or could be blotted, out of
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