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
are not there. Science has to commit mistakes and think they do not; still knowledge is derived from inferences which we draw from certain premises which may not be right or if the premises are right the inferences may be wrong. We do not mean to say that there are always mistakes in the knowledge which is acquired through senses or through matter, but sometimes it is possible, and while it may be correct knowledge in many cases we cannot rely on that.
when the soul becomes infinite, no finite mind can fully express the condition of that infinite state. The attributes we give therefore to that condition of the soul are always full of comprehensiveness. We shall always leave out many things; we have no power to express all our thoughts. How can we express, then, this state of a soul which so far as its power and knowledge are concerned is infinite?
Jain Ethics-Reverence to Life
The highest knowledge is immediate knowledge, derived by the soul without the assistance of any external thing, and the knowledge of liberated souls, and also the knowledge of human beings who are just on the point of being liberated, or have passed through the course of discipline, mental, moral and spiritual and have nearly exhausted past forces or karmas, at the same time, generating spiritual forces, and on account of discipline and spiritual evolution have become receptive. The soul sees everything when this state is arrived at; it knows everything, is fully conscious and consciousness itself means first of all that it knows itself, and to know one's self means that it is something, some reality, and there can be no reality unless it can distinguish itself from other realities.
When he thinks that its very life, consists in doing good and in loving other souls and taking active measures for carrying into effect the very plan, then it rises higher, and ultimately reaches, the highest condition. The condition of the soul, as I have said, is the highest in which there is perfect consciousness, there is infinite knowledge and infinite bliss; we express these three ideas in Sanskrit as existence infinite, bliss infinite and knowledge infinite. That condition of the soul cannot be described by us because description is something which proceeds from a finite mind and
The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill," and the Jains practice universal love so that this also means that we should not kill any beings. If we say that the Bible does not mean that, we take away a part of the Bible. Why should we interpret the laws of any religion from the narrowest standpoint? We cannot derive laws which are to be applied to the whole universe, simply by our observation of a part of the conscious nature of the universe. If you wish to state correctly the nature of the universe you will have to study the nature of all the different parts of the universe and then the laws will be applicable to all parts of it.
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