Book Title: Jainism And Its History
Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology

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Page 286
________________ If we consider taking the help of others in our living as our right, then on same ground it is our honest duty to help others in their living. The principle of equality of all beings means that everyone has a right to live just as myself and therefore one should not have any right to take other's life. Thus for Jainas the directive principle of living is not 'living on other's or "living by killing', but “living with others' or 'living for others'. They proclaim that co-operation and co-existence are the essential nature of living beings. If it is so, then we must accept that religious tolerance and fellowship of faiths are such principles to be followed at the bottom of our hearts. ONE WORLD-RELIGION: A MYTH Though in order to eradicate the conflicts and stop violence in the name of religion from the world, some may give a slogan of one world religion but it is neither feasible nor practicable. So far as the diversities in thoughts and habits, in cultural background and intellectual levels of the human beings are in existence, the varieties in religious ideologies and practices are essential. Jaina pontiff Haribhadra rightly maintains that the diversity in the teachings of the Sages is due to diversity in the levels of their disciples or the diversity in the standpoints adopted by the Sages themselves or the diversities in place and time i.e. ethnic circumstances, in which they preached or it is only apparent diversity. Just as a physician prescribes different medicines according to the condition of patients, his illness and the climatic conditions, so is the case with the diversity in religious preachings also. Therefore, unities, as well as diversity both are equally essential for the fellowship of faiths and we should not undermine any one of them. Just as the beauty of a garden consists in the variety of Jainism and its History | 284

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