Jain Journal 1991 04

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

Page 29

APRIL, 1991
173
Thou livest on milk? So do the children in the world,
Thou livest on air ?
So doth a serpent.
Thou livest on grass, vegetables, and desirest no wealth ?
So doth the cow, the ox . (2) p. 47 Don't the peacocks dance, and the frogs croak, and the clouds thunder ? Don't the trees stand ever on one foot ? Don't the Jains sweep the ground before putting their feet upon it ? (11) p. 50.
Moreover, as Jains are considered atheists, because the concept of Jain God (Bhagavān) is not understood by many God loving people of other religions, Guru Govind Singh did not see the Jains kindly. There is a reference to the Jains in the 'ten swaiyyās' of the Dasam Granth, which is translated as follows in Thus Spake the Tenth Master :
I've wandered through the world of the puritan Jains, and numberless Siddhas, Yogis and the celibates; And the brave demons, and the angels feasting on pure nectar, and the holy ones of various creeds : I've seen the whole world of man but seen not a man of God, the life of all life. Without a touch of His Loving-kindness and Grace, man is worth only but a trite !
(Swaiyyä Number 1, p. 41)
Macauliffe (1909 : 314) points out that some of these sawai yyās "are also read in Abchalangar and other places while the Sikh baptismal water is being prepared, Several orthodox Sikhs say that these are the sawaiyās which ought always to be read at the baptism, and of this indeed there is internal evidence.” Guru Gobind Singh has said :
He who repeateth night and day the name of Him whose enduring light is unquenchable, who bestoweth not a thought on any but the one God;