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18
Letter 3
then one sees the necessity and greatness of the study of our philosophy and scriptures.
There is a common belief that by studying religion i.e. Dharma or religious scriptures one becomes fanatic. But it is not true because many of the Jain scriptures like Moksha Marga Prakashaka, Ratna Karand Shravakachar, रलकरंड श्रावकाचार, Rajvartik राजवार्तिक, Syadwad Manjiri, fart tell us what is the truth and what is not, or what are fallacious theories and beliefs. And then they proceed logically to prove how these theories are wrong. And they establish that Jainism is nothing but the path of liberation as told by the Kevali i.e. Arihant. And that is the ultimate truth.
Many people say that we consider all religions to be equally proper and right. They say (1) we will read the philosophy of all the religions (2) we bow before all the Gods and (3) Namokar Mantra is itself tells us to bow before all the pious people (g) in this world. I will try to show the shortcomings or fallacies of these beliefs and actions practised by these people.
(1) It is O.K. to read and study philosophical scriptures of any religion. The sages who have written the above mentioned Jain scriptures, had made a comparative study of them and many more of which we have not even heard of. Their detailed descriptions are available in those scriptures. These monks, experts in logical philosophy i.e. Nyayashastra (g), had studied all the religions and logically proved that Jainism is the best and supreme. But ordinarily each of us may not be lucky enough to have that long life to study all these by ourselves.
(2) Those who bow before all these so called Gods i.e. Deva, Kudeva, Adeva cannot be rational beings. They do not have the capacity to judge as to whether those Gods have all the characteristics of Ishwar or True God. We have already studied these characteristics of Ishwar in our earlier letters.
In our daily life while buying any small thing like a piece of cloth or any utensil we examine it thoroughly, try to find about its quality, standard of manufacturer etc. Or if we are sick we do not go to any quack, but go to a qualified doctor, who has thorough knowledge of the subject, who has the reputation of having good name and fame.
But while worshipping or bowing to any God we do not bother to find out whether he has all the qualities of true God and consider all Gods to be same and therefore worthy of worship. This is called Vinay Mithyatva (faner freuter) i.e. perverted belief or belief without any discrimination.
