________________
FOREWORD
and the Māyākañcukas which obscure the divinity of the soul and limit omniscience, omnipotence etc. The basic coating has to be removed first before the true vision can arise. When the obscuring matter is mature Grace descends on the soul and by the application of kriyasakti in dikşa the matter is removed. Thus spiritual ignorance disappears and spiritual knowledge follows. The rise of intellectual knowledge through practice of sadhanas and the removal of intellectual ignorance fall within these two limits.1
Jain Education International
xxiii
The Foreword has become inordinately long and I do not wish to make further observations on other points or issues raised in the work. The author, as an exponent of Jaina philosophy, has done full justice to the subject and has given unmistakable evidence of a wide acquaintance with and of great labours in the field of early Jaina philosophical speculations. It is desired however that, in the interest of a more comprehensive treatment of the problems concerned from the general viewpoint, the author should compile another work where India's outlook on these problems may be clearly represented. We have had enough of analytical work attempting to describe the different systems in isolation, taking each as a distinct prasthana and proceeding along its own line. But time, I believe, has come when scholars should come out from their narrow grooves, take up a synthetic view of things, and try to discover the underlying unity and interpret India's outlook as a whole. I invite the author, whom I consider to be competent enough, to undertake the work, to come forward as a pioneer in the field, and take upon himself the sacred task of interpreting the message of undivided ancient India to the outside world.
1 Vide infra, pp. 143-4.
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
