Jain Journal 2013 07

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

Page 35

JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLVIII, NO. 1-IV JULY 2013-JUNE 2014
the Jaina system, ksetravit in the Samkhya discipline, jñāna in the Buddhist school. Similarly, the fundamental ground of worldly existence is known as avidyā in the Vedanta and the Buddhist system. Moreover, the relation between matter and spirit is known as bhrānti in the Vedanta and Buddhist system, pravrtti in the Sāṁkhya School, and bandhana in the Jaina system. There is thus fundamental unity among all the apparently conflicting systems of thought. Nathamal Tatia says, there ought to be no real controversy among them about the fundamental things". Truth is truth. It is our different ways of looking at it that is responsible for the building up of different systems. For a spiritual aspirant it is necessary to avoid controversy and strive for self realization.
Following the method of anekānta, the mystic saint Śri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), fought against all sectarian doctrines and dogmas; yet at the same time, he showed that all sects and creeds were but the paths which lead sincere and earnest souls to the one universal goal of all religions'2. For the first time it was absolutely demonstrated by Sir Ramakrishna that all religions are like so many paths leading to the same goal, that the realization of the same Almighty Being is the highest Ideal of Cristianity, Mohammedanism, Judaism, Zorastrianism, Hinduism, as well as of all other religions of the world. He had tried successively Hindu, Muslim and Christian symbols as means of his sādhanā, and compared in a parable the various religions to the ghāts (banks or bathing places) around the same tank!3. The Muslims take water from one ghāt and call it ‘pāni', while the Hindus taking water from another ghāt, call it ‘jal, and the Christians use a third ghāt and take what they call 'water'. Though names are different, it is the same water. Sri ramakrishna's mission was to proclain the eternal Truth that God is one but has many aspects, and that the same one God is worshipped by different nations under various names and forms; that He is personal, impersonal and beyond both; that He is with name and form and yet nameless and formless!4.