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THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.*
BY Prof, B. L. Atreya, M.A. of the Benares
Hindu University. Gentlemen,- I consider it a great honour and privilege to be invited to preside over the anniversary of this temple of Saraswati, the Syad-Vada-Maha-Vidyalaya, and therefore I am sincerely thankful to those who have given me this happy opportunity to be here, although I cannot forget that my presence in this seat of honour is not well-deserved, and therefore, is an injustice to those who really deserve it.
The only justification of my presence here, inspite of my lack in the qualities required of a president worthy of this gathering, is my love and admiration for most of the religious and philosophical doctrines taught by your holy Tirthankaras. If religion is only a spiritual quality, and philosophy a view of Life and the Universe, I have no hesitation in calling myself a Jaina in so far as I share the doctrines of Jainism. I believe, with you, that the Reality has many aspects (Anekantavada), all of which should be known belore our knowledge can be said to be comple:e and perfect; that our judgments about things in our practical life are generally made from particular points-of-view, and hence they have only relative validity (Syadvada) not the absolute; that I am the maker of my own fate (Karta) and the enjoyer of, or the sufferer from, the results of my own deeds (Bhokta). Nay, I am my own Liberator, and so I need not throw the responsibility of the states and conditions of my existence on any other agency, God or Devil; that death does not efface our existence, but only puts us in another environment which is required for the fruition of our good or bad deeds (Karma): that though I am potentially omniscient and perfect, yet somehow my persection and omniscience are veiled and hidden by the power of some agency which appears to be other than myself through its constant entering into (Ajiva)
* Delivered at the Twenty First Anniversary of the Syadvad Digambar Jain Mahavidyalaya on 17th April 1927. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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