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THE JAINA GAZETTE.
could be surely utilised to far greater advantage. A strange medley of religious faith, the desire for worldly show and an unmitigated conceit, these practices display! No amount of car processions or pilgrimages can save us. Nor can the goal be reached by the mock religiosity which prompts many to assiduously observe the outward fornis of religion, to the utter neglect of true charitra as inculcated by the Shastras. There are not wanting Jains who attend the temple regularly and abstain from taking cabbages and potatoes, but who lead dirty and mean lives. To quarrel with their own brethren and back-bite is their cherished ideal of civic existence. Naturally they would not know what honesty, manliness or self-respect is. With such types it is indeed very difficult to cooperate. Another obstacle which prevents organized work is the exhibition of inordinate conceit, with which many of us are stuffed. The noble spirit of Ahimsa again is very little observed by us in our daily conduct. While we might help a lame dog over the stile and worry enormously over a wounded rat or a bird, we would not be ashamed to harbour the basest sentiments towards our own brethren and fellow men. This is a contemptible travesty of Ahimsa and can never appeal to human intellect.
However all these defects and drawbacks, which are invariably due to an incorrect appreciation of our sublime religious teachings can be overcome by sympathy, patience and the determination to succeed. Pessimism is the creed of cowards. A way can always be found even under difficult circumstances. The community can be successfullyorganized by an All-India Association of intelligent earnest workers, who would carry on ceaseless propaganda for awakening the political sense of the community. An ancient fossil like the Mahasabha cannot do it. All that it practically achieves is perhaps to wake up at a certain reason in the year to hold its annual meeting, at which the formalities of an insipid and lifeless programme are gone through with ludicrous circumstance and pomp. Something more genuine and earnest is wanted, than this sort of periodical farce. The community at large has to be made to realise the gravity of the peril which confronts us. The average Jain looks askance at western education, and yet it is the
educated Jains who are properly equipped for working out the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
