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THE A, B, C OF JAINISM
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"Jainism is a religion of a very high character. Its chife principles are based on science, and this is not only my inference, but it is my actual experience. The more the science of things progresses, the more it proves the principles of Jaina religion."
In certain quarters it is wrongly understood that Jainism does not believe in God, and that it is an atheistic religion. Such a view of Jaina religion is the result of the ignorance of its doctrines and philosophy, and we hope that this ignorance will be clear to the reader in the body of this small work.
Speaking about this Dr. Pertold says:-" The Jaina view of God is a very natural one for the 'thinking being. I am strongly opposed to those, who may call Jainism atheism and thereby deny its being a religion at all."
"To make a final conclusion I venture to say that the Jaina religion is for the comparative science of religion one of the most important developed religions because of its advanced view of religious matter as well as of the methods."
Thus looking at it from whatever point of view we have to admit that Jainism has a very valuable contribution to make to the uplift of humanity which is the one object of all religions. This a. b, c of Jainism" is no attempt on our part at an original work in any one of these fields. It is merely to give to the general reader in a nutshell a correct idea of Jainism.
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Such small primers have also their scope in the vast field of literature, and looking to this we hope that this 'a, b, c' will be helpful to many a reader, and will also remove the doubt and misunderstandings of many seekers after truth.
We know and we are conscious of the short-comings of this tract, but this is only an humble attempt for the information of the general reader.
(To be continued.)
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
