Selected Speeches of V R Gandhi

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi Godiji Jain Derasar Mumbai

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the reincarnation, is another grand idea of the Jaina philosophy. The companion doctrine of transmigration is the doctrine of Karma.
The Sanskrit of the word Karma means action. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" and "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” are but the corollaries of that most intricate law of Karma. It solves the problem of the inequality and apparent injustice of the world.
The Karma in the Jaina philosophy is divided into eight classes : Those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth ; those which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those which give one pleasure or pain, and those which produce bewilderment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely that a student of Jaina Karma philosophy can trace any effect to a particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully and so clearly the doctrine of Karma. Persons who, by right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, destroy all Karma and thus fully develop the nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection; become divine and are called Jinas. Those Jinas who, in every age, preach the law and establish the order, are called Tirthankaras.
2. I now come to the Jaina ethics, which direct conduct to be so adapted as to insure the fullest development of the soul-the highest happiness, that is the goal of human conduct, which is the ultimate
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