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NEW IDEOLOGIES. NEW TRADITIONS.
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seek initiation under the aegis of any particular religion They win enlightenment by virtue of their wisdom The Lord recognised such mighty beings equivalent in all respects to their counterparts of the Lord's order
Mahavira's four conceptsq' Uninitiated enlightened, 2 Availability of enlightenment to initiates of an alien order, 3 Householder enlightened and 4 Pratyeka Buddha shattered the dogma that reserved the privilege of deliverance to the votaries of one particular sect only During the Lord's day there existed scores of religious sects Some of these schools subscribed to the concept of time-bound creation The two opposite camps arraigned each other relentlessly resulting in either of the two situations 1 Glorification of one's own sect and running down of
other sects, 2 Dogmatism-a non-relativistic insistence on one's faith
to the exclusion of another's perspective
The Lord dealt with both the situations with his relativism It emhasıses that everything has numberless characters and can be seen from countless stances
Questioned Gautam-'Sirel Why do the votaries of religion idolise their own faith to the detriment of another's?'
Said the Lord, 'Gautam! People who are dogmatic deem their own angle of vision as absolute Others' observation fails to convince them This biased approach leads them to commend their own sect and belittle that of others'
'Is it proper, my Lord ?' Said the Lord, 'The ones upholding their own view And denouncing other's view, affect wisdom, And labour under fallacies 'l He again said, 'Those who keep hammering their own point,
Are hardly profound in matters moral 1 'Suyagado', 1/1/50
