Studies in Jainism

Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

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STUDIES IN JAINISM
faith predominates, sects fight with one another, thus putting the clock of human civilization back. The growth of man's soul is retarded. Thus harmony - communal harmony is the fiat for mankind. The fiat has been issued throughout the recorded history. In our age Sri Ramakrishna did it. and Swami Vivekananda shouted from the platform of the Parliament of Religions (1893): "The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others, and yet preserve his own individuality and grow according to his own law of growth."
He further expressed the hope that upon the banner of each religion shall be written: "Help and not Fight". "Assimilation and not Destruction." "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension".
This is nothing but preaching oneness of the God-head (the Jainas however are largely atheists), the ball was set rolling by the Sants in this country in the Middle Ages when the rugged followers of Islam sought to impose their tenets at the point of sword and the natives were to resist it. Kabir, originally a Muslim weaver of Varanasi, is perhaps the most luminous representative of the Sants, who summed up the tenor thus:
"Rāma, Khudā, Śakti, Śiva are one."
This has been called Indian Tapasyā (spiritual quest) or the Bharat Panth - the Indian way. The followers of the Panth have been designated as the Bharat Pathiks - the Indian Pilgrims. The Jaina Munis -Acārya Tulsi and Acārya Mahāprajñā who have launched the Anuvrata Movement have themselves joined and enjoined others to join the band of Indian pilgrims. Tagore has written in his Society and State (Towards Universal Man) that India's special contribution to world civilization lay in the exaltation of the principle of unity in diversity. Anuvrata further rediscovers in this signal contribution of India what may be described as spiritual liberalism.
Resistance is presented as an ideal in the preamble to the Anuvrata code of conduct, but resistance, it is made