Jain Journal 1977 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 11

OCTOBER, 1977
Parsva :
Kamatha :
Parsva :
Kamatha :
Parsva :
Parsva :
There rises a voice within That tells me not to tarry.
What inhumanity
Is being perpetrated in the name of religion! Those greedy tongues of burning fire
Make millions so miserable.
I hear the wail
Of those that burn in fire.
He who despises life
Is no saint but a hypocrite.
He who commits sin in the name of religion,
Fie on him.
Religion never teaches violence.
He who commits violence
Shall find refuge nowhere.
What sacrilege!
How dare you decry The five sacred fires?
O Saint, this is no sacrilege; Call this no rivalry.
Truth, non-violence, temperance and austerity Alone constitute true religion.
Religion teaches love and mercy,
It bestows fearlessness to self and others.
To take life, can never be religion, Rather it is a mockery of religion.
Prove thou-I kill.
I take out one wood. You break in twain. Betwixt you find Two serpents roasted.
(Parsva takes out a firewood. Kamatha breaks it in Half-baked serpents fall to the ground. Parsva chants incantations to the reptile-pair)
two.
Unto Arhats the perfect souls embodied, Unto Siddhas-the perfect souls in Nirvana, Unto Sadhus--the ascetics devoted,
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