Jain Spirit 1999 10 No 02

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 17

FEATURE
that I occupy. These positions are useful as opportunities to do something Vedas, the Upanishads, the Buddhist you want to do, as opportunities to serve others, as opportunities to give. and Jain scriptures, and I consider
myself the servant of the great tradiIn my life, I have found that there is nothing more fulfilling than to give. Give in any sense that you can. However, you cannot
My message to the Jain give unless you try to cultivate your abilities - like planting a crop. Then instead of taking it home and keeping it to yourself,
community is simple: I think the crop must be harvested. I had opportunities which make me what I am. I am only too conscious of my own weak
Understand, imbibe, assimilate nesses, my own lapses and my own inadequacies. At the same time, one has to do the best one can. This is where I find a
and then disseminate. meeting point in the Jain tradition and in the Gita. Once you do your best and are not deterred by greed or selfishness, I think you are bound to succeed. We all have certain needs and desires and I don't tion of spiritual humanism. Western believe that we can overcome that unless we achieve a highly spiritual state humanism is secular in that it is antiof renunciation of the kind which Jains have taught - through the practice of religious. My humanism is steeped in ahimsa and aparigraha.
the sanctity of the spiritual tradition.
Ahimsa is a very old tradition, not I consider myself as best someone who has to be a servant of the commu- restricted to Jainism. Agriculture nity. The best servant is one who had done his duty well. To be a servant of became less violent over time - from a higher cause than one's daily life is always ennobling. I have translated the hunting to pastoral to agricultural life.
The destiny of civilisation is a pilgrimage from violence to non-violence, from fanaticism to tolerance, from lack of consideration of others to the maximum consideration for others. I consider myself a child of this cosmic striving in the togetherness of all the traditions. In Jainism, to regard one tradition as less sacred than another is itself a kind of sacrilege. I think the young Jains, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, all have a contribution to make to this multi-cultural dialogue and take humanity out of the shells of isolation.
I draw great inspiration from the scriptures. I have been reading the Tattvartha Sutra over again, in order to write the foreword to the English translation being produced by the Sacred Literature Trust. All sacred texts inspire. Many of them also appeal to your reason. Tattvartha Sutra is a text of remarkable clarity. It is a brilliant encapsulation of principles which are an integral part of the Jain tradition. I find that a philosophy of life enables one to
No one religion has a monopoly of truth
Picture: India Unveiled by Robert Arnett
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Jain Spirit . October - December 1999