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CO-EXISTENCE AND RELATIVITY
201
'You are also correct that the elephant is like a thick rope But you have merely touched its tail and not the whole of it'
'You are wrong because you assert your partial experience as true and another's as false That makes all the five of you to be wrong Let the part be merged with the whole and you will express the truth'
Every basic reality of the universe is integral An atom is also integral So is the Atma or self However, no integral reality is devoid of its parts Mahavira reconciled the part with the whole by means of his relativistic approach He revealed the mystery in the following words
'One who comes to know one, comes to know all One who has known all, knows one'?
A prejudiced individual invents arguments to justify his thesis An individual free from prejudices applies his thinking equipment to the argument rightly
A prejudiced being puts the spectacles of stubbornness upon his eyes to see truth and one free from prejudices sees truth with numberless eves
Lord Mahavira's age was one of intellectual fermentation Numberless curious individuals sought instructions from the sages and masters Besides their own masters they sometimes called on masters of other sects Sometimes women were also there amongst the truth-seekers Lord Mahavira quenched the thirst of thousands during his life-time The greatest of such truth-seekers was his prime disciple-Indrabhuti Gautam Much of his preachings is devoted to his questionings 1 Once Gautam enquired
'Sirel Certain aspirants state that spiritual pursuit is possible in a forest only Pray let me know your considered opinion about it'
'I hold, one may pursue spiritualism in the village as well as in the jungle One may fail in it in the village as well as in the jungle' 1 'Ayaro, 3/74
