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THE JAINA GAZETTE The relation between such a belief and life is the most intimate one.
As a man thinks, so he is.
Just as the whole mechanical world depends upon ideas for their formal causes, so the whole realm of human conduct is the product of ideas.
Belief and conduct are twin sisters. Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit reap a character ; sow a character and reap an eternal destiny.
The uplift of humanity depends on the strong and the mighty serving and lifting up the weak and the down-trodden and not upon the big fish swallowing up the small fry.
During the years of the Great War when Germany's star was in the ascendant, there appeared a picture of Kaiser William standing on the top of a ladder of gigantic size, the rungs of which were composed of piled up human corpses, and with the picture were the words "See how high I have
risen."
If this were the true picture of any man, it would be the picture of a man without religion, a man living in and for himself. The incessant cry and watch word of self is "Take, grab and slay." Religion supplies one with the belief in the not self whose underlying motto is "Give, spend and sacrifice."
Secondly, the negative value of religion is so obvious that only a few words will suffice here. This negative value is not at all to be considered a negligible factor in human life. Religion is the most potent known influence in human life, in performing that destructive work against the forces of evil both inside ourselves and outside, which are arrayed to carry on an incessant warfare, not only to minimize and dwarf all efforts towards progress but even to make life itself impossible.
If it were not for a belief in some sort of religion, how many more hospitals and orphanages, prisons and lunatic asylums would have to be filled with the sick and the suffering, the murderers and robbers and male factors of all descriptions.
Thirdly the positive value of religion is twofold. It gives a sense of personal peace and conteniment. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
