Practical Path

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

Page 15

THE PRACTICAL PATH.
be relied upon as a rational method of securing any desired end.
The law of cause and effect also holds good in the region of spiritual science, notwithstanding its emphatic denial by semi-trained theologians at times. For, were it otherwise, spiritual emancipation would have to fall within the uncertain domain of chance, and the method of the attainment of the ideal of the soul would be deprived of its rational basis of efficacy, leaving mankind to grope in the darkness of uncertainty and doubt-by no means a happy predicament.
The necessity for right knowledge* cannot, therefore,
*It is interesting to note in this connection that almost all the rational religions of the world also lay stress on the necessity for knowledge as a pre-requisite of moksha Thus the rite Jñânan na mukti' (no salvation without knowledge) of the Vedas is directly confirmed by 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John, VIII. 32) of Jesus, and, impliedly at least by, 'he dieth not who giveth (his) life to learning, (The sayings of Muhammad) of the Prophet of Islam. But the question remains as to the nature of Jñana which is to bring us salvation. Does it mean exact knowledge only, or un-precise, untrue and inaccurate information also ? We feel sure that nothing but true knowledge, free from error, doubt and ignorance, was intended to be understood by such texts, for if doubt, ignorance and error can take the place and fulfil the function of Jñana it is a pity that the text should have used a word which is diametrically opposed to them all. It does not, however, seem to have always occurred to the followers of the different religions now prevailing in the world that Jñana implied the negation of its antithesis, ignorance and the like, and meant neither more nor less than the knowledge of things as they exist in nature. The reason for this failure is mostly to be found in the fact that most of the systems of religion and philosophy deal with empty abstractions and wordy concepts rather than with concrete reality. They thus lose sight of the principle of cause and effect,