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OCTOBER, 1967
Being an essay which appeared in a German Encyclopedia on the Religions of the World, entitled "Religionen der Menschheit" it briefly gives a historical summary of the Jaina Sect with its literature and religion.
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SHAH, UMAKANT PREMANAND, Studies in Jaina Art, Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1955. Pages 166. Price Rs. 10.00.
Chapter I attempts a critical survey of the Jaina art in North India, i.e., in the regions north of the Vindhyas. Chapter II is on symbol worship in Jainism. First, the growth of the conception of the word caitya as found in Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina tradition is reviewed and then the meaning and spread of the worship of the stupa, stambha, the caitya-vṛkaşa, āyāgapaṭa, samavasaraṇa, siddhacakra, svapna, aṣṭamangala, sthāpanā, etc. as also of Aṣṭapada, Sammeta-sikhara, Panca-meru, Nandisvara-dvipa, etc. are discussed. Besides it contains a note on stupa, samavasaraṇa and ziggurat, bibliography, index and 36 art plates.
RI, VIJAYARAMCHANDRA, The Ideal of Culture in the Rāmāyana, translated by Chunilal Vrajlal Mody, Bombay Shroffs Association, Bombay, 1965. Vol. I-The Three Stages of Yoga. Pages xviii+235. Price Rs. 5.00.
First of the four volumes of the sermons of his Holiness Sri Vijaya Ramachandra Suri on the Ideal of Culture in the Rāmāyana. The subject matter of the Rāmāyana is contained in volumes III and IV. In order that the reader may follow with benefit and assess the exposition, in its true perspective sermons collected in Volumes I and II are on the three stages of yoga and on the virtues the acquisition of which brings worthiness for the path of yoga of any of the three stages. In the present volume it is stated what yoga is. It is the art of culture that sublimates the soul to the state of salvation which is the highest end of human life. Yoga is classified into three stages. The first stage describes yoga of saintly life which implies the relinquishment of all sensual pleasures and possessions. The second deals with yoga of the householder's life, wherein one has to renounce sensual pleasures and possessions according to one's capacity. The third treats of yoga of right faith wherein the aspirant has to possess the unswerving conviction that human life is exclusively meant for saintliness.
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