Light Of Life

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

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our Dharma. This kind of error has not been com nitted by us at any time. Our Indi an Government has prepared a constitution which is secular so that all need not follow the same Dharma against their wishes. In the whole world only our Government has prepared a secular constitution so that every individual can follow the religion of his choice. This policy may require some compromise on the part of everyone but it is a great policy and it has to be kept up. This philosophy of tolerance has been the essence of Indian culture.
IDOL - WORSHIP, BIRTH, DHARMA BASED ON BIRTH, CASTE AND RELIGION - SHOULD WE BELIEVE IN THESE THINGS?
Lord Mahavir has stated in a Shloka, all that is to be said about this subject. When Lord Mahavir was asked, "What is the relation between birth and Dharma ?'' He gave this reply. "We do not have faith in casteism". Caste system was introduced as a means of social organisation. It was based on division of labour. 1 do not mean that the caste system introduced by the great sages of tho past is erroneous, The system began as a means of social organisation.
He clearly declared that a man becomes a Brahmana or a Kshatriya or a Vaisya or a Shudra by his actions, not by birth. It will be nothing but hypocrisly to accept birth as determining one's caste. Mahavir declared, "A man becomes, what he becomes by his actins." You may be a brahmin or Jain by birth, but if your thoughts and actions are ignoble, you cannot be deemed either a brahmin or a Jain If a person who is a shudra by birth, entertains noble thoughts and acts nobly, he deserves respect. That is why we give the diksha to any individual irrespective of caste or creed. In the Jain tradition, eighty five percent of the Jain Acharyas from the time of Mahavir upto the present day are brahmins. Even to-day, our
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