Jainism and World Problems

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 48

JAINISM AND WORLD PROBLEMS THE NEED FOR THE JAINA DOCTRINE IN THE
WORLD OF TO-DAY* Adi Purusha, Adisha Jina, Adi Subidha Kartara, Dharma Dhurandara, Parama Guru, namaun Adi Avatara ! Translation,-To the First Perfect Man, The Lord of the
Conquerors, the first Most Excellent Adjustor of things, The Support of Dharma, the Supreme Teacher
Salutation ! There is a story of two brothers who once upon a time are said to have taken the offerings of their respective occupations to their god. One of them was the tiller of soil, and the other a keeper of sheep. It is said that the offering of the keeper of sheep was accepted but not that of the other.
To me this story conveys a very important lesson. For Soil is the symbol for matter, and the tiller of soil is the representation of him who is given to the study of matter, whose cult is matter, and whose religion is Materialism. On the other hand, sheep is the symbol for life, and Lamb the abode of very many excellencies of the Soul nature, in metaphorical thought. The rejection of the offering of the Materialistic Reason would, naturally, symbolise the valuelessness of materialism from the higher standpoint of Religion, while the acceptance of the work of Faith, which is the keeper and protector of Life, hence of souls, shows that its work is to be lauded. We thus have two standards of values, which may be termed the Abel and the Cain Standards.
The Abel standard appreciates such things as excellent Meekness, Renunciation, Universal Love (ahimsa), the giving away of the coat and the cloak when only one of them is claimed at law, and the like. The Cain type finds 'pleasure in amassing wealth, surrounding oneself with Juxuries and
* Delivered on the 15th of September, 1933, in the Morrison Hotel, Chicago, at 8 p.m. under theauspices of the World l'ellowship of Faiths.