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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
ligion is its skin If spiritualism be the meaning, religion is its verbal expression
In the event of the religion preponderating and thus dwarfing the spiritualism, the gross lamp, the peeling and the letter outvalue the flame, the spirit and the core of knowledge Such was the plight during the Lord's age Religious format smothered the spiritual core The cinders of spiritualism were dimmed by the overlying religious ashes The Lord redeemed the spiritualism from the tryranny of religion and thus awarded it a broad perspective
Enquired Gautam, 'Sırel Pray elucidate what the perennial dharma is'
Said the Lord, 'Non-violence is the perennial dharma ? The sages that were in the past, And the ones who will come hence, All draw sustenance from non-violence, As do creatures from the mother earth 12
Sorel Some thinkers assert—"It is our religion that harbours dharma and no other" Is it true my Lord ?
'Gautam! Beware of the preaching-'Seek refuge in my religion if you desire deliverance There is no alternative to it!' "Such rigid equation of religious sects and deliverance is a sectarian dogmatism Such fanatics can at best induce fanaticism amongst others rather than the true spiritualism '8
'Is it not true my Lord that embracing shramanıc religion is an open sesame to deliverance and no other?'
'Gautam! Spiritualism does not inhere in particular names and forms It inheres in its own essence Reality we may hold that an individual abiding by spirituality alone can be religious
'Then sir, is there no independence between dharma and religion ?
1 'Ayaro' 4/1,2 2 'Suyagado' 1/11/36 3 Ibid 1/1/73
