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The Jains through Time
necessarily contain this affirmation of the mobilisation and materialisation of personal and universal welfare. Scriptures are a guide to the perception and performance of the truth, whereas the subject matter of a book is at one remove. Once we learn the difference between the genuine scriptures and other books about religious matters, science and religion will no longer be at loggerheads. One discipline will not dub the other false or 'all-destroying
speaks against them a liar or an ignoramus. This irrational attitude towards books on religious matters has gripped not only India but the entire religious world. This has been the case for a long time. One can still read about how the adherence of some people to books they called sacred, forced scientists, who dared to question these works, to leave the country. The pages of history are filled with stories of scientists executed for having had the temerity to refute some of the contents of these books.
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While the intelligentsia shows great indifference towards religious texts, whether Jain - Sutras, Smritis, or Puranas, the devout today also view them with some doubt. The reason lies in our failure to differentiate betweerbooks and scriptures or understand the real meaning and worthiness of the latter. We have accepted as scriptures each and every ancient text available in Sanskrit and Prakrit; we have simply lumped them all together, calling them the voice of the Lord. Tying them around our necks like a millstone, we have proclaimed them our sacred texts and, as a consequence, the unchanging truth. We call anyone who
Books Are Mere Compilations Those books which are not scriptures, but have come to be thought sacred over the years, have caused great confusion amongst all sorts of religious groups. Granth - the word for 'book' in Sanskrit - is etymologically related to the word granthi, which means 'knot'. A Jain monk or ascetic is known as nirgranth, as there is no knot or binding within him which might hold back the infinite welling up of love, forgiveness, and universal compassion from the depths of his inner being. A knot is tied when things have to be collected or bound
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