Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 01

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 9

The Sacred Books of tho Jainas.
whom truth is revealed in Jaina books and who find .consolation and inspiration in the principles and teachings of our an. cient Jaina preachers. This is the psychological hour; this is the dawn of a new morning for Jainism; this is the rennaisance Jiteral and figurative-of our ancient and glorious creed. Our rich and orthodox brethren pride themselves on their piety-to a certain extent, rightly but not entirely so. Their money is not always well spent. The motive may be of the best; but the actual manifestation, takes a very limp and loose form. In their charitable designs we miss a sense of proportion. The needs of the community are but ill-judged and things that may well wait for decades gain an unfair and fratricidal precedence over others which must be looked to immediately, It is like a starving 'man investing his last anna on a richly embroidered shawl. The Jaina creed is clothed in costly page. ants, whereas the soul of it is starved for want of substantial aliment. Thus it cories about that our great mother Sarasvati has been woefully neglected.
To wipe out this shame the All India Jaina Association have undertaken the publication of the hitherto unpublished works in English which should form a complete Library of Jaina Scriptures under the little of “The Sacred Books of the Jainas. All the canonical scriptures of the different sects of the Jainas will be included in the series and each volume will contain the original Text with an English Translation, Transliteration, Introduction, critical and explanatory nots on different passages with numerous appendices which will contain detailed descriptions and discourses on the points briefly touched in th text etc. etc. Editors and authors are to be men of worldfame as scholars of Jainism and whose names are landmarks in the fields of oriental Research. The utility of such a series can never be oyer-estimated. To the Jainas, these volumes will reveal the truths of their religion, the history of the life and teachings of their great Tirthankaras, the account of rituals and ceremonies, the philosophical doctrines of Jai ism and a detailed desoription of the progress of Jaina religion and literature. To