Book Title: Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment
Author(s): Narendra Bhandari
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad
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Jainism: The The Eternal and Universal path
Truth is interwoven in the Universe
Fossil record on Earth, Nature's chosen path
Universality of Law,
Self, Foundations of Jainism,
Universality of Jainism
Life is made up of a sequence of situations and we continuously move from one situation to another, sometimes struggling and some times getting the desired outcome. In this process we quickly realise that this struggle has taken up all our life. At the end it appears that the life has been wasted in trivialities. In the ultimate analysis, as far as the physical assets are concerned, life is a zero sum game. One is born with no assets and upon death, leaves all of them behind. The net outcome would not have been different irrespective of the way we chose to lead our life. This can hardly be the purpose of life. This, however, is not true of the conscious assets. One is born with his sanchit karmas and, upon death, carries with him the arjit karmas. As we will discuss in this chapter, in the scheme of nature, it can be shown that life on earth exists for a specific purpose. Any "religion" is expected to guide us to understand this purpose and help us realise
it.
Every age has its specific problems and a "true religion" is expected to show the path to resolve these problems at all times, in all domains and in all possible situations. In this respect a religion has an eternal role. Problems of conflict at all levels (personal, societal, and national), consumerism, terrorism, impact of the life style on environment, to cite a few, are the hallmarks of current era and mental peace or satisfaction is hard to achieve, as many will admit. Much of these conflicts have arisen because science and technology is progressing at such a fast pace, much faster than the human mind can adapt to, and the mental, philosophical and spiritual faculties are not able to cope up with the physical changes thrust upon us. In this era of competitive development of
