________________
blind faith causes intolerance. Jainism therefore, does not support blind faith. Jaina thinkers maintain that the right faith should be followed by right knowledge. The faith followed by right knowledge or truthful reason cannot be blind one. According to Jaina thinkers, reason and faith are complementary and actually there is no contention between the two. Faith without reason, as the Jaina thinkers aver, is blind and reason without faith is unsteady or vacillating. They hold that the religious codes and rituals should be critically analysed. In the Uttarādhyayana-Sūtra, Gautam, the chief disciple of Mahāvīra, strongly supports this view before Kesi, the pontiff of the church of Jina Pārśva. He said: “the difference in the Law must be critically evaluated through the faculty of reasoning. It is the reason which can ascertain the truth of Law”.
If one maintains that religion has to be solely based on faith and there is no place for reason in it, then he will unfailingly develop an outlook that only his prophet, religion and scriptures are true and other's prophets, religions and scriptures are false. He will also firmly believe that his prophet is only savior of mankind; his mode of worship is the only way of experiencing the bliss and the laws or commands of his scripture are the only right ones and thus he remains unable to make critical estimate of his religious prescriptions.
While one who maintains that reason also plays an important role in the religious life, will critically evaluate the pros and cons of religious prescriptions, rituals and dogmas. An 'attached' or biased person believes in the dictum 'Mine is true', while the detached' or unbiased person believes in the dictum 'Truth is mine.'
Gunaratnasuri (early 15th century A.D.) in his commentary on the Saddarśana Samuccaya of Haribhadrasuri (c. 3rd quarter of the 8th cent. A.D.) has quoted a verse, which explains : "a biased
291 Jainism and its History
