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I am the Soul
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test before anybody? If no, then what right have we to call our religion true and the other religion as false. Today we believe the religion followed by the family we are born in, as the best. Had we been born in another family, perhaps this religion may not have seemed so great, and then would you call the other one great? We talk without understanding the essence of the religion.
Let us consider another angle. Any religion is always superior. Whatever is inferior cannot be religion. But the superiority - inferiority or the high - lows that we discuss could be relating to the community. But we have not been able to identify the difference between religion and community! We take the community itself as religion, but community is not religion, it is only an arrangement, and there can be good-bad principles, customs in it. There could be internal differences, differences of beliefs within it.
There are so many religions in India. We need not talk of all of them, but let us consider the communities within the Jain religion. First there was the split of Digambers and Shwetambers. Then in the Digambers there came Vispanthi, Terapanthi, Taranpanthi and such other communities. In the Shwetambers there came to be so many communities like the Murtipujak, Deravasi, Sthanakvasi, Terapanthi, Songadh path, Srimad Rajchandra's path and so on. All these differences relate to communities, not religion. Religion cannot be split. It cannot be partitioned. Nobody can make pieces of a religion.
Brothers, pardon me! But, among those of you here, there are some Sthanakvasis, some Deravasis, some follow the Songadh path and some others believe in Srimad Rajchandraji. The Sthanakvasis believe their religious tradition to be true, the Deravasis say they are true, and others? Others too say they are true. But I would say that all are wrong. Deravasi is not a religion. Sthanakvasi is not a religion. Songadh or Srimadji's sects are not religions. They are mere communities, and there are bound
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