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THE A. B. C. OF JAINISM weak and passive. Our worldly prosperity as well as our spiritual progress depend on sound physique and hence it becomes urgently necessary for every aspiring individual to be very careful about his vital growth. Only a vitally sound man can stand by himself, his country and his religion, and hence Jainism has absolutely no objection to the progress of military education and discipline.
Now we come to certain social institutions, and see what Jainism has to say about them. We shall first take the most important institution of our social life, that is, marriage. According to Jainism when two persons marry, they are not only socially bound to each other, but also religiously. In unequivocal terms it expects both the parties to be loyal and devoted to each other, and thus live a calm and peaceful life.
Jainism never believes in unequal and old marriages. That a marriage should take place between equal parties, and that too with the consent of the parties concerned is what is laid down by it with full force and emphasis. From the institution of marriage there arises the other problem of the equality of both the sexes.
Jainism does not believe in inequality between the two sexes, and hence it is far from it to lay down that either man alone or woman alone is to rule the world. It rightly says that none is greater or more qualitied than the other, but each has its own field of work, and whatever the world is, both have their equal share in it. It finally believes that there can be no progress so long as one sex is looked down upon by the other, and so long as one of them is not properly trained and educated to co-operate with the other.
Now we come to what is known as a caste system in our social life, and see what Jaina scriptures have to say about it. For Jainism there is nothing like any caste system, because it does not believe in the division of man-kind into various compartments. It is out with an idea of universal caste, and strictly abhors the feeling of differentiation brought about among
man-kind by this system. To look down upon a man because he Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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