________________
214 :
śramaņa, Vol 58, No. 2-3/April-September 2007
That has been the difficulty all the while. "I am a Hindu". I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the "whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world."*
It is thus very important for us to understand that it is the feelings that are the culprit. The values need to be questioned. The wisdom is lacking. We need integrated personalities. We need beliefs, decisions and actions that are made, after much thinking and analysis, in due awareness of the fact of their being limited to a particular standpoint of consideration. The significance of mature thinking is well brought out by Śrī Aurobindo in the following words:
"Our first necessity..... is that the young of India should learn to think - to think on all subjects, to think independently fruitfully going to the heart of things, not stopped by their surface, free of pre-judgments, shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kind as with the macc of Bhima"
To be precise, we need to gain in wisdom by looking at the complete picture and being conscious of our mortal and practical limitations.
III
In a world where the seed of all forms of sorrows and violence lies in partial, adamant, selfish, restricted and misguided thoughts and actions, it is the understanding and imbibing of the wisdom inherent in the Jaina doctrines of Anekāntvāda and Syādvāda that can be one of the rare and much coveted wheel of humanity towards the ideal of world peace. These two jewels of Jaina wisdom whisper to the ears of the suffering humanity :
'All beliefs and judgments are based upon a particular perception of reality and hence can never claim absolute truth or existence.'
