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JAINISM AND ITS POWER
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If I have spoken to you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I speak to you of heavenly things?'
And it is distinctly added:
'I have other things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them yet. The student of the Bible is or ought to be familiar with the fact that its composition and language are deliberately so worded as to mislead the swine class of people, and that the sense of its doctrines and dogmas could not be understood except under instruction from specially qualified teachers. If any one is interested in this part of the subject I would recommend to him at least one of my recent pamphlets whose title is a sufficient index to its subject matter-The Glimpses of A Hidden Science in the Original Christian Teachings.
Such are the reasons that have stood in the way of the doctrine of loving one's neighbour. To-day the great Message that I have to give you from Jainism, will furnish a complete explanation of the doctrine of LOVE and will, if accepted, enable us to live in peace with our fellow-beings, as we did in India for untold millenniums in the past, until there was an invasion from the West a little less than a thousand years ago. It is no part of my discourse to-day to take you through the Indian History or to explain why the western invasion was successful against a great peaceful nation, I will merely remark here, in passing, that the reason was that people had about that time come to disregard the rule of Love and were divided and cut up amongst themselves, so that there was no real opposition to the invading hordes. As a matter of fact, Jainism is not opposed to fighting altogether; though it is opposed to fighting in all cases except in self-defence. If you are attacked you must defend yourself; but you should not attack any peaceful individual or community yourself. The reason will become quite clear if you take the case of an object of one's love going mad all at once and attacking, with destructive weapons, whomsoever he chanced to encounter. It is obvious that if you do not disarm him on account of a false sense of love, you will be directly acting as the enemy of all those whom he will destroy. Under such circumstances if he has to be killed in the process of disarming there is no blame in the killer.
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
