Tirthankar Mahavir

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Jaybhikkhu Sahitya Trust

Page 21

Acharya Shri Kailassagarsun Gyanmandir
Acquisitiveness or possessiveness is directly related to violence as are exploitation and corruption. To exploit the disadvantaged or the underprevileged is also a form of violence. "Jain religion affirms the coexistence of non-violence and human existence," says Muni Santbalji.
Jonathan Swift a great satirist, has said, "We have just enough
religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another." We must annihilate the very idea of violence and fanaticism to reach the ideal of religious fellowship. Truth, detachment and non-possessiveness are the fundamentals of universal religion preached by Mahavira.
Another important feature of Jain religion is that it has thought about food or diet and its effect on man's thinking. 'As you eat so shall you think', it says. It lays greater emphasis on
fasting, on abstemious habits as does Ayurveda. According to Carrington "Fasting rests the heart and it gains in strength. It also helps in the process of purification of blood." Not only that, it helps one to get rid of unwanted desires. Similarly, Jain religion emphasises the importance of vegetarianism. In the present age when diseases such as heart-attack, blood pressure etc. have become rampant, vegetarianism is the answer to these ailments. The modern mind accepts nothing that is not scientifically proved. Fortunately all that our scriptures said centuries ago has been proved scientifically. American doctors advise the patients to finish eating before sunset and that is what the ancient texts advocated. Meditation and Yoga have been successful in easing tensions and stress and even in removing physical and mental disorders. There is pochhakhan to develop mind, kausagga (meditation in a standing posture renunciation of attachment towards one's body) for meditation, pratikraman (ritualized confession) to know one's faults, paryushan (religious festival) for the purification of mind, and forgiveness as an attribute of the brave - these will only help in the remaking of man. Jain religion's panacea is - character, charity, penance and love. These alone can reawaken the dormant humanity,
Martin Luther King Jr., who fought against racism, had a dream about a world where a person's identity is known 'not by the colour of the skin, but by the content of his character.' Jain religion is opposed to discrimination based on caste, colour or creed. "Bow not to a person, but to the virtues he/ she has," it says. Take refuge in religion, asserted Mahavira and it will lead you to liberation.
The universe today is in vice-like grip of pollution. Trees are mercilessly razed to the ground and the disastrous consequences in the form of famine or floods, soil erosion etc are there for all to see. We are not sure whether the inhabitants in 21st century will get natural rain or man-made acid rain ! Many living organisms have been annihilated leading to imbalance in the