Mokshamala

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 46

adverse impact thereof in subsequent life, can also be termed as imperfect and flawed. For the time being let us keep aside one that is perfect and flawless.
The question may arise why the imperfect and flawed faiths could have been set up by their founders. The reply is that the advocates of those religions thought only to the extent of their intellect. The conclusions that they came to with the aid of hypothesis, reasoning, analogies etc. were treated as final truths and were propounded as such. The opinion that they formed was presented from one perspective. Out of the various concepts like devotion, faith, morality, knowledge and action, one was dealt with at length and others worth consideration were treated as flawed.
Moreover, the subjects dealt by them were not thoroughly known to them with all ins and outs. Still they described the same at length with all their intelligence. They convinced the normal intelligentsia of their theories with logic and the simpletons with illustrations etc. Having the aspiration to gain reputation, or to accomplish common good, or in order to be worshiped as gods they did it ardently and succeeded therein
Some attracted the attention of the people by fascinating and elegant means. The worldly people are drunk with fascination; being impressed by the elegance they accepted what those founders said and followed them like lambs. Some adopted it by noticing therein a bit of morality, detachment etc. The intelligence of the founders being greater they were taken as godly beings. After initially spreading their faith with the concept of detachment, some people introduced therein the comfortable and luscious aspects. If one did not like what the other said or because of his own imperfections or on any other account, he embarked upon a different path in order to set up his own faith. There thus came about a maze of many sects and creeds. Once a religious faith was observed for four/five generations, it became the family creed. That happened from place to place.
Lesson 60: Differences in religious beliefs, Part 3
If there is no perfect and truthful philosophy, it would not be possible to term others as imperfect or wrong on any ground. Let us therefore examine the imperfect and biased approach of other faiths on the basis of admissible standards of the perfect and truthful one.
Other religions do not go deep enough in thinking about the philosophical aspects. Some of them talk about the Creator of the universe, but there is no evidence for the existence of a Creator. Some state that liberation can be attained by knowledge, while others consider it possible by observing rituals. Both of them are one sided. Even those, who stipulate that knowledge as well as rituals is required for getting liberated, do not have the true concept thereof; they could not even specify the stage by stage description of those aspects. It shows that the founders were lacking in omniscience.
Moreover, it seems from the characterization described by those founders that they were not free from 18 types of faults specified in lesson No. 8. Those faiths, which urge violence, sensuous pleasure and such other impure aspects, are evidently imperfect and must have been founded by the enticed worldly persons Some faiths talk of all-pervading liberation, some of nothingness, some of having a form, some of a state that will continue for some time and then subject to fall. None of them makes sense. For refutation of such imperfect beliefs it is worth looking at the texts composed by the disentangled authors.
By reading about characterization, thinking etc. of the faiths other than those based on Ved, it would become evident that their founders were imperfect. Veds have made an apparently serious show by bringing about the concept of various founders and different viewpoints. A study of those viewpoints would, however, show that they are imperfect and lopsided.
The perfect viewpoint that we intend to mention here relates to Jain philosophy set up by the detached Lords. Its founders were omniscient and omni percipient. Though their tenets have been modified with the changing time, they still stand on sound footing. No other philosophy has described the concepts of compassion, conduct, discernment, detachment, knowledge, rituals etc. to the extent done by Jainism. Its