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JAINA GAZETTE. (Aug. & Sept. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, the standards of morality that we feel and that we show in our lives, are often distinct and sometimes different. As to real morality, I need say nothing except that it must vary according to the education, temper, aims and ideals of each man and woman ; as also according to the family and other group influences in which the individual life is lived. Necessarily, the standard of this morality is arbitrary. And we are apt to listen to our moral monitor quite as much as to its opposite. But a mind well-trained and in syınpathy with nature can never go far wrong by obeying Dr. Rossette's advice : Have a life of your own ; or Emerson's thundering encouragement: you are an Era by yourself ; lead your own life and you will leave the world better than when you entered it.
As to group-rogarding morality it is evident that this is a complex question. It touches Sociology, Politics, Religion and even dread Theology. Dan and Society are parts of the same living organism. They grow together. They stagnate and rot together. As the principle of self-regarding morality is deeper, so that of group morality is higher. In ancient society, it found a most prominent place. The law-givers of Greece, Sparta, e. g., measured the worth of a child in the light of the State. An ugly or weak infant was exposed to die. In Rome the policy of law was the good of the State. The citizen was told : it is necessary for the state to live, it is not necessary for you to live. So Bentham and the hedonists taught: that the aim of life must be the greatest happiness of the greatest dumber. In our own days when priestocracy and feudalisin are left far behind, and the family of the French Revolution is spreading as Anarchism, Suffagatism, etc., etc., the homely English language sums ap our self and group morality in four words : Live and let live. The advice savours of the political creed of Laissez-faire : Let it be. Bat its meaning is olear and useful. Its circle is really wider than that of groop morality. For it includes all living beings your pet dog and bird as much as your neighbour or his 'pretty child. But to confine ourselves to the human group. What
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
