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PREFACE
Religion has been the greatest force in the history of mankind, and religious experience has been man's noblest experience. There have been and will always be sceptics, but as Bacon said, "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth man's minds about to religion". Religious studies make the sceptic realise the mystery and pathos of moral existence and the fact why religion is so profoundly moving-there must be something humane and necessary in an influence that has become the most general sanction of virtue, the chief occasion of art and philosophy, and the source, perhaps, of the best form of human happiness. All religion is positive and particular, and Jainism is no exception. It seeks to bring true happiness to its votaries by elevating them morally and enabling them to attain the highest spiritual perfection they are capable of.
In every age, the most comprehensive thinkers have found in the religion of their time and country something they could accept and interpret so as to give that religion depth and universal application. The Jaina Tirthankaras last of whom was Mahāvīra (599-527 B.C.), and a number of outstanding Jaina saints, who flourished during the last two thousand and five hundred years or so, were, no doubt, such thinkers and it should be interesting to know about and try to understand the religion preached and practised by them.
The present author is an adherent of Jainism, but his aim is not propaganda. A Western scholar, reviewing a similar book, J.L. Jaini's Outlines of Jainism, more than half a century
