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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision and reflects reverence for an individual. Man can never be at the centre of the philosophy which says that everything is controlled by God and man is a mere puppet. He himself is not free, he has no independent will or freedom. Jainism, on the other hand, grants complete freedom to every one to act the way he wants to do.
Human rights encompass freedom of thought, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. Jain religion has the doctrine of anekant, its literal meaning is the doctrine of nonabsolutism. It is Jainism's unique gift to the world. Anekant advocates looking at things from all angles. It takes into account thoughts and opinions of others. It says : Others, too, have a point of view and we must respect it. Knowledge or thought or behaviour has to be examined from a variety of angles so as to get a total, complete picture.
Anekant is an all-pervasive approach of this religion towards every facet of human values and behaviour. It is the corner stone on which the well-thought out Jain philosophy is based. It is a concept which teaches us rational behaviour to be practised in every walk of our life. The nicety of this concept mainly lies in the fact that it teaches us to be impartial and objective towards everything; to be unbiased in our thinking and in our conduct. It inspires us to have an all-pervasive view towards every problem that confronts us, to look to the other side of the matter also, so as to enable us to make a correct and rational judgement on issues that we face in our life. It teaches us to look at and judge everything with an open mind, the greater the openness of mind, the greater would be the clarity, impartiality and objectivity in our thinking.
Human Rights And Jainism Such an approach alone would ensure the practice of Anekant in everything that we do in our day-to-day life. The tenets of Jainism on which its teachings are based emphasise this as the core of its basic philosophy. The real nature of human life can never be reflected in our thought and action if one takes an attitude of Ekant (obsession for only one thing or one side) as against Anekant. The Ekant, would present before us a partial, biased and one-sided view of everything, while Anekant, would present before us an impartial, unbiased and all-sided view. In the situation, the only alternative for all right thinking persons is to practice Anekant. The philosophy of Anekant teaches us the maxim of synthesis i.e. rational assimilation of every good aspect that we can draw from the experience of every individual, into a coordinated whole, even if some of these aspects may have been drawn from the experiences of our opponents. For this, we will have to shed our ego, our false notions and our vanity. The Jain philosophy thus respects thoughts, religions and opinions of others. This is the foundation of what is now called the human rights. Tirthankara Bhagwan Mahavira was accessible to every human being - low and high. He respected the views of everyone. He was open to questioning by anyone irrespective of his status in life. Even those, who belonged to other religions, those who preached and practised other faiths, could freely approach him for a religious dialogue. Each individual enjoyed the freedom to meet him and to sort out discrepancies in mutual beliefs. That is why among the community of Jains, each individual enjoys the democratic right of freedom of thought and expression.
Human rights assume greater significance at the time of war as against the time of peace. Jainism has a particular
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