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vadgita and the upanishads that I miss even in the sermon on the mount...when doubt haunts me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horison. I turn to the Bhagvadgita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of external tragedies, and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the bhagvadgita".
The theme of the Gită is self-realization and its means. The second and eighth canto speak of the way to self-realization and the ideal of anāsktiyoga or nishkarma (action without desire for the result).
"Jainism :- Ahismsă is the leading tenet of the Jainas Philosophy. The Jains believe that that the entire world is literally packed with an infinite number of embodied souls, their bodies being either gross and visible or subtle and invisible. All the elements are animated with souls. The embodiment of the spirit in the material body is the cause of misery. So life means pain even to souls with invisible bodies. To become a Muktātma, a soul needs liberation from the bonds of the body. The individual must complete the process of nirjară, i.e. get rid of Karmas. For this, there are three means (tria-atnas), right knowledge (Samyakjnana), right insight (Samyak Darshana) and right conduct (Samyak Charitrya). Right conduct consists in five vows (yratas) of which non-killing (ahimsā) is the first, the other four being truthfulness, non-stealing, non-possession and celibacy. Monks have to observe these rigidly and laymen according to their capacity.
In no other state of India, is the hold of Jainism (on the life of the people) greater than in Gujarat, where Gandhiji was born and brought up. In childhood, his father, though a vaishnava, frequently associated with jain monks. Gandhiji did not accept the dogmatic approach of jainism, but lay more emphasis on the positive aspect.
Buddhism :-Buddhism avoids the extreme view of ahimsā taken by jainism. Buddha's teaching, it has been said, begins with purity and ends with love, and is distinguished by one emphasis on the ethical, rather than on the metaphysical elements. His ethics is the practical application of the ethics of the upanishads.
Both Buddhism and Jainism laid stress on ahismā being organically related to truth, non-stealing non-possession and celibacy. But later on, when monasticism degenerated these virtues were dis-regarded and the tradition of ahismā weakened.
Later religious sccts and teachers in India especially the devotional saints who preached the Bhakti-mārga, continued to extol com
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