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amount of knowledge into a unified whole and exerted immeasurable influence on scholars, philosophers, religious leaders then around him. His illustrated teachings through questionanswer style of description had a wider and more popular appeal than any other Indian scholar or saint. His teachings are based upon the belief that moral questions could not find satisfactory answers without an integrated knowledge of seven Tattvas. The central theme of his preachings is to realise the self-soul by giving up false belief, knowledge and conduct and this is possible through right understanding of seven Tattavas only because there are deeper slamps and impressions of misconceptions and distorted understandings upon our minds about these Tattavas.
With the view to keep myself engaged in the study of Jaina scriptures and attain self-realisation, I dared to translate this great work of Pt. Todarmalji into English which took about three years (1984-86) to complete.
My sincere thanks are due to my friend Professor Jamnalal Jain (Devi Ahilya University of Indore), himself a keen student of Jain Philosophy, for taking great pains in thoroughly checking and correcting the translation by rearranging the sentences for maintaining true sense of original book and giving fluency to language. I very sincerely acknowledge and feel gratitude towards him for his whole-hearted co-operation without which this rendition would have not been possible.
I am also thankful to Late Shri S. Gajapathi Jain of Tiruppanamoor (Madras) for his valuable suggestions regarding translation of this book, when I met him personally at his residence in May 1986. I also thank my friend Shri N.C. Mavani, M. Tech., Sion, Bombay for providing photostat copies of my English manuscript for getting the translation checked. My thanks are also due to my friends Dr. U. C. Jain, M.A., Ph.D., Seoni; Dr. D.K. Jain, M.A., Ph. D. (Professor, Govt. College, Neemuch); Pt. Rajmal Jain, B.Com., Bhopal; Shri Suresh Jain, IAS, Bhopal; Shri V.C. Shripalan, Madras and Shri Raj Mal Jain, Jaipur for giving useful suggestions in this venture.
Although I have tried my level best not to deviate from the original text and enough care has been taken to maintain the
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