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Role of Religion in unity of Mankind and World Peace : 155
their vested interest. The barbarity committed in the past and perpetrated in the present in the name of religion is very largely due to the intolerance and fanaticism of the so-called religious leaders and their ignorant followers.
The only way of freeing oneself from this sordid situation is to comprehend the true nature, the essence of religion and to develop tolerance and respect for other's ideologies and faiths.
A true religion consists in the practice of equanimity and nonviolence. In Acārānga-sūtra the earlier Jaina text (c. late 4th cent. B.C.), we come across with two definitions of religion: 'equanimity is the essence of religion (samiyãe dhamme ayariyehim paveiye)', while the observance of non-violence is its external exposition or a social aspect of religion. The Acārānga-sütra mentions that practicing of non-violence is the true and eternal religion.
Jainism, since its inception, has been tolerant and respectful towards other faiths and religious ideologies throughout its history. In Jainism one hardly gets any instance of religious conflicts resulting in violence and bloodshed. Jainas, the advocates of Anekantavāda fully paid regard to different ideologies and different religious standpoints and maintained that other's convictions may also be valid from a certain standpoint.
Humanity as a true form of religion
First of all we are human being and then any thing else. Before being divided in - casts like Hindu, Bauddha, Jaina, Christian, Muslim, Sikkha etc. we are all human being. Our prime duty is to be a human in its real sense. This spirit is echoed in one of the earlier Jaina text Uttaradhyayana wherein Lord Mahāvīra has laid down four conditions for a true religious being viz.- 1. Humanity, 2. True faith, 3. Control over senses and 4. Efforts for self-purification. Among these four conditions of a religious being, humanity occupies the first and the foremost position.
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