Book Title: Jaina Philosophy and Religion
Author(s): Nyayavijay
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

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Page 335
________________ Karma Philosophy 307 in the next birth? So to entertain ill-will towards a person belonging to a particular sect, caste, class, country or race, or towards a poor or socalled low person, to look down upon him, to take pride in one's family etc., and to hate other's family, etc. is not proper.” Thus on account of the noble outlook resulted from the doctrine of rebirth and indestructibility of the soul, he never regards the beings high or low. He lives up to the great dictum, viz., "panditāḥ samadarsinah (i.e., the learned treat all beings equally) which for him is the motto or ideal of life. Therefore, he remains always engaged in doing good to others (irrespective of sect, caste, class, nationality, race, etc.) and thereby doing good to one's own self at the same time. Many men claiming to be given to logic and reason have doubts about the existence of God and soul. But when a terrible calamity befalls them or an acutely painful disease attacks them, their vigour of logic and reason dwindles away and their mind gets absorbed in the memory of God (some incomprehensible, unseen, mysterious conscious power). Their heart then becomes inclined towards Him. They constantly recall Him and declare their total wretchedness by repeatedly confessing before Him their wickedness, weakness and helplessness. They solicit His shelter or refuge with the impatient heart full of fervent devotion. However intense be their mental obstinacy, it certainly wanes at the time of misery and calamity. During the time of merciless calamity, man's impudence melts away and disappears. And the impending death is the gravest calamity. At that time even the hard-core atheist becomes soft and his atheism withers away, and his eyes roll in search of some Supreme Soul whom he can beseech to free him from the jaws of misery, the only one who can give him shelter and mental peace. If we do not accept the existence of soul, rebirth and God, and regard auspicious karmas and inauspicious karmas as mental figment, then we will be deprived of the best motivating force of spiritual development and the order of the world will lose its firm basis. The pilgrim of spiritual progress declares on the strength of his experience that man is robbed of his inner happiness and dark clouds of disappointment and despondency surround his mind as soon as he think that there is no soul, no God. The pentad of soul, karma (auspicious and inauspicious), rebirth, liberation and Supreme Soul is such that the acceptance of one of them necessarily implies the acceptance of the rest. In other words, on the acceptance of one, the rest of them stand automatically accepted and on Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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