Book Title: Jain Itihas Series 01
Author(s): B Benarsidass
Publisher: B Benarsidass

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Page 56
________________ ( 47 ) all places? If sacrifices were efficacious, they should also have been reckoned as accessory to Yoga. But strange to say, this is not so. Gentlemen, certainly the sects practising Yoga in ancient times must have been against Vedic sacrifices and slaughter of animals for any purpose whatsoever. You see the confirmation of this view at least in the case of one sect of the Yogis, the Jains. You must remember that the Jains are the great Yogis. All Jain Tirthankaras were great Yogis. All Jain monks were great Yogis. A Jain cannot obtain Moksha without practising Yoga. Yoga is a necessary condition for killing the Karmans and attaining Nirvana. Just see our images in our temples. They are practising Yoga. Look to their Asana and Dhyana. Just see how they are absorbed in meditation. This is the characteristic of Jain images. If you find any images practising Yoga, it is the Jain. The Hindu-images are not so. It is a pity that most people have failed to understand Jainism. People blame the Jains for worshipping naked images, but they never look to the Asana and Dhyana of those images. They never think that the Rishis being altogether absorbed in meditation, could not think or care to wear clothes. Then, gentlemen, the Jain Rishis were great Yogis and you know that their faith is Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah! Here, gentlemen, I am struck with one circumstance. A Yogi is to practise the five Mahayrataś or

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