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THE JAINA GAZETTE life! For unless you respect life in all its manifestations, it will not be possible for you to respect it as you should in your neighbours. I am not talking of the mockery of love that is no deeper than the mucous living of one's lips, and that readily leads one to circumvent facts, twist the significance of words and phrases of solemn pacts and to trample on treaties and engagements. If you have no respect for all life, you will never have respect for any of its forms, except when it suits you otherwise or when it is better for you to behave respectfully towards any one individual or community or communities of men. Look, all the disturbance in the jungle arises from the presence of animals that prey on and devour the flesh of their 'fellow-beings. There is no disturbance where herbivorous animals live. The deer, the cow, the pigeon, the dove, injure no one: it is the wolf, the leopard, the hawk, the vulture that are constantly engaged in killing are causing disturbance. The prirciple holds good throughout.
The question is how is the necessary change in the human heart to be effected ? The Bible taught all right enough : love thine neighbour as thyself. But it failed to make any impression on the worldly man! Two causes account for failure in this respect and these are especially strong in modern times. Firstly, the Bible is believed by Christiandom tu-day to teach only respect for the human life. The doctrine of love is not to be extended to all forms of life, the animals being deemed to have been especially created for being devoured by men. With such a belief you require an extraordinary logical acumen to perceive the special sanctity of human life when all its other forms of life are devoid of it. No wonder that the average man 'is not impressed with such a special sanctity for the human life. The other reason why the Biblical doctrine of loving the neighbour impresses us not to-day is to be found in the fact that the modern mind has acquired what I might term a highly commendable spirit of freedom of thought, and is not likely to be swayed by mere lipse dixit and doctrines that do not explain themselves. He will not, therefore, turn the other cheek, or give his cloak also when only his coat it is that is claimed at law. As for the unintelligibility of these doctrines the
Biblo itsell explains : Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
