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Metaphysics, Ethics and Spiritual Development
257
sublimation of life, and discreetly explains as to how it is our duty or religion to practise non-violence-compassion, is respectable and acceptable. The right path-preached and taught by such scriptures-of spiritual study, righteous conduct, wholesome austerity and all-embracing love or friendliness is religion, the path of spiritual welfare.
Incidentally, we should note that good acts performed on account of family tradition are laudable. But when they are performed with understanding, they give us indescribable internal pleasure and satisfaction. Those who are Jaina, Bauddha or Vaisnava by birth or family tradition are not so great as are those who are Jaina, Bauddha or Vaisnava with full understanding and knowledge as to what constitutes Jainahood, Bauddhahood and Vaisnavahood. In other words, those who are Jaina, Bauddha or Vaisnava on account of their following the self-purifying, lofty, altruistic ideals that constitute the essence of Jainahood, Bauddhahood and Vaisnavahood are the true Jainas, Bauddhas or Vaisnavas. It is because those who accept and follow this path of righteousness, known by the name of Jainism, Buddhism or Vaişņavism, with full knowledge and understanding, use their power of discretion and judgement to remove dust, dirt and impurities that have crept into the long tradition of the path. With their power of discretion and judgement, they remove the perverse and degenerate elements, and thereby achieve spiritual development and present before the people the pure path of righteous living and spiritual knowledge.
If the Jaina, Bauddha, Vaisnava, etc., are narrow-minded and sectarian, then and then only their paths are divergent. But if they are endowed with faculty of discretion and judgement and really desire the spiritual good, then they are followers of the same path of spiritual welfare, though they bear the different labels of sects and cults. Such good men who are even-minded, equanimous, charitable, purely devoted to knowledge, and worshippers of good spiritual qualities are the co-travellers of the same path.
Vaişnavajana to tene kahữe, je pīļa parāī jāņe re"—this devotional song is well-known throughout India. The good moral qualities enumerated in it are as much necessary for being Jaina or Bauddha as they are for being Vaisnava. If to possess these good qualities is the only condition
1. The meaning of the line is: 'Those men who are pained to see the sufferings of others
are called the Vaişnavas.'
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