Systems of Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

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INTRODUCTION
Here we have a lecture series dealing with the systems of Indian Philosophy and delivered by V. R. Gandhi in 1894 at Chicago. These lectures are important as much because they deal with the systems of Indian Philosophy as because they were delivered by V. R. Gandhi. For V. R. Gandhi (who was born in 1864 and died young in 1901) was one of the extraordinary Indians of his time. He was a born Jaina and (what is more noteworthy) a convinced Jaina, and it was as representative of the Jaina sect that he took part in the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893 (better known to most of us on account of Swami Vivekananda's participation in it). But few Jainas before and after him would equal him in their capacity to make the Jaina positions comprehensible to a non-Jaina audience and in their capacity to adopt a most non-sectarian approach while dealing with a problem. Gandhi's many lectures meant to undertake an exposition of the various aspects of Jainism (and his article "Philosophy and Psychology of the Jains" published in Mind Vol. I, No. 4)-most of them available to us in the collection published under the title "The Jaina Philosophy"-can well form for those who know English a best introduction to this branch of studies in Indian culture. Particularly noteworthy in this connection are the lectures (delivered in England) dealing with the Jaina doctrine of Karma. The verbatim notes of these lectures-which were in possession of H. Warren and were probably taken down by himselfwere later on published under the title "The Karma Philosophy". V. Glasenapp, the recognized Western authority on Jainism in general and the Jaina doctrine of Karma in particular, duly acknowledges his indebtedness to these lectures of Gandhi which even today remain an independent source of enlightenment on the subject in spite of the German scholar's doctoral dissertation devoted to the same. The "doctrine of
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