________________
VII
replica of life and something which, when, heard or read, goes straight to the heart Short story is one of the literary forms in which the writer expresses himself. Jainism provides a pbilosophy which is difficult to the extreme and is intelligible to a handful of scholars. To bring it home to the common man, spiritual teachers and scholars in different ages have used the medium of short stories of which there are hundreds, even thousands, scattered throughout the length and breadth of the vast agamic literature and their commentaries They have been produced in different ages by men with widely divergent experiences, but all against the backdrop of a common canvas which is Jajpism. The analysis of personalities in these stories, the conglomeration of events, the clashes of selfish motives and interests, the display of bravery, the shape of endeavour, the depth of human life, the quagmire of meannest, fear, squalor, impatience, lethargy imbalance, etc, which undermine the quality of life and place it on a very low pedestal, these and many such thiogs dominate these stories These have been repeated innumerable times to refix the fallen, the misguided, the downtrodden to the right path which is the path of religion, the path meant for a pilgrim, and they are still not devoid of freshness and potentiality.
To be the subject-matter of literature, it is not necessary that the life of men only with a golden tinge is deserving of consideration Even the life of men with dark patches provide an equally worthwhile material for the purpose. These two types of men may stand widely apart, they may, so to say, be called to belong to entirely different worlds, but that does not prevent them from receiving consideration at the hands of a creative artist Whenever life, golden or dark, has some vigour 10 thinking, some capacity for acting, some message for others, it becomes a worthy material for the literary map's attention Jaina stories, in fact, depict the life of men with a golden tinge as well as that with dark patches. Men with a golden tinge are inherently good and they are already on the right path as good examples for others But even men with the deepest patches stand the chance of rehabilitation if they can be brought back to the
