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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EXPRESSIONS OF THE ETHICAL IDEAL ACCORDING TO THE
UPANIŞADS, THE GĪTĀ AND JAINISM
IN INDIAN soil we find the growth of different solutions for ontological, ethical and religious problems. The Vedic, the Jaina and the Buddhist speculations illustrate the enormous divergence of thought current in the domain of India Philosophy. Notwithstanding the differences in metaphysical conclusions arrived at by the various trends of thought, their exponents, confronted with the same sort of transitoriness of the things of the world, have resorted to similar methods and contrivances in order to go beyond the manifest superficialities of objects. It is astonishing that they concur remarkably with one another on the psychological, ethical and religious planes of existence. It is proposed to deal in this paper with the various expressions of the ethical ideal made use of in the Upanisads and the Gītā with a view to comparing them with those used in Jainism. It is of capital importance to note that the diverse formulations of the ethical ideals signify simply the diversity of expression and not the difference in the essential meaning conveyed by them.
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First, of the two diverse paths that are open to man, the wise one distinguishes them properly and chooses the path of good in preference to the path of pleasure, by virtue of which the true aim of life is realized. On the contrary, the fool hankering after the path of pleasure is defeated in attaining to real beneficence.' The mundane path which many
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