Jain Journal 1995 10

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

Page 22

GOVARDHANADASA : MAHĀTMĀ GANDHI AND KAVI RĀJACANDRA
14. JESUS CHRIST AND THE BIBLE
Q-It is an article of faith with the Christians that 'Bible is the word of God and Jesus Christ is His son. What's your opinion about it? A. This thing can, of course, be believed as an article of faith, but it cannot be established by proof. The same reasoning which I have advanced above to disprove the godly character of the Gitā and the Vedas can usefully be aplied to the Bible as well. You will keep in mind that God is a Perfect Being liberated from the cycles of birth and death, therefore a Being who gets incarnated or takes birth can never be a God. As birth is the result of attachment and aversion and God is devoid of these blemishes, God can never be conceived of assuming births and incarnations. Allegorically, of course, Jesus can be taken to be a son of God, but rationally such a belief is untenable. How can there be a son to a liberated God? If for the sake of argument, it may be taken to be true, then how this birth will be conceived to have taken place. Still further, if this relationship of father and son be taken to be eternal, then how will this relationship hold good? All these things are worth consideration in this connection. As far as I think, these things when analysed would never come true.
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15. PROPHECY OF OLD TESTAMENT
9.-The prophecy about Jesus in the Old Testament has come out to be true. How do you explain it?
A.-It does not alter the position. It may be so, still we have to judge the validity of the testimony of both the Testaments. Moreover such a Prophecy about Jesus' birth is no sound proof of his being an incarnation of God, because such prophecies of birth are possible to be made on the basis of astrology etc. It is also possible that Jesus' birth might have been prophesied by some person by intuition, but in the absence of congent proof it cannot be accepted. And such sooth-sayers cannot be held to be omniscient teachers. Such a prophecy appears to be based more on faith than on any reasoning, for there are so many difficulties in the way of its being accepted as true.
16. MIRACLES IN THE BIBLE
Q.-There are so many miracles about Jesus narrated in the Bible, what do you say about them?
A. -It is quite impossible for a dead body to be resurrected by the entry of the soul which has left it, or by some other soul. If such