Book Title: Jain Dharma Darshan evam Sanskruti
Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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Page 172
________________ Role of Religion in unity of Mankind and World Peace : 163 Lord Buddha, who could not attain arhat-hood in the life-time of his "Sāstā." Once Gautama asked Mahāvīra: 'why am I not able to attain the perfect knowledge, while my pupils have reached the goal. "Lord answered: "Oh, Gautama, it is your pious attachment towards me which obstructs you in getting perfect knowledge and emancipation". Therefore the elimination of attachment is essential in order to develop a tolerant outlook. Reason - the check-post of Blind Faith The blind faith, causes intolerance, therefore, one should not support blind faith. The right faith should be followed by right reasoning. The faith followed by truthful reason cannot be blind one. The reason and faith are complementary to each other and actually there is no contention between the two. Faith without reason is blind and reason without faith is unsteady or vacillating. Therefore, the religious codes and rituals should be critically analyzed.!4 In the Uttarādhyayana-Sūtra, Gautama, the chief disciple of Mahāvīra, strongly supports this view before Keśī, the pontiff of the church of Jina Pārsva. He said: "the difference in the Law must be critically evaluated through the faculty of reasoning. It is the reason which can ascertain the truth of Law.!5" If one maintains that the religion has to be solely based on faith and there is no place for reason in it, he will unfailingly develop an outlook that only his prophet, religion and scriptures are true and other's prophets, religions and scriptures are false. He also use to believe that his prophet is only savior of mankind; his mode of worship is the only way of experiencing the bliss and the laws or commands of his scripture are the only right ones, and thus disturbs the peace and also causes conflicts in the name of religion. Whileone who maintains that reason also plays an important role in the religious life, will critically evaluate the pros and cons of religious prescriptions, rituals and dogmas. A biased person believes in the dictum 'Mine is true' while the unbiased person believes in the dictum "Truth is mine". A biased person tries to justify whatever he has already accepted, while unprejudiced person accepts what he feels logically Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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