Unknown Pilgrims

Author(s): N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi

Page 25

Presentation
The author has adopted quite spontaneously the true attitude of a disciple in accordance with the purest Indian tradition. She went to listen, ask questions, learn, understand and assume into her own life, without in any sense repudiating her own past or disowning the deeper causes of her interest in her subject. I endeavoured to persuade her to add here and there critical reflections in order to preserve a methodological balance. The understanding of a religious phenomenon involves a conviction concerning its truth, but it by no means excludes perception of the limitations of the phenomena under observation. An authentic phenomenology of religion must penetrate as far as the pistema (belief), and not halt at the exclusively 'objective' and rational noema (concept). One only grasps the convictions of others by sharing them.
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3. Existential character
The above remarks have already indicated the character of this work. It is not an exposition of Jaina doctrine as such, though I know very few works so complete and so profound on the subject of its spirituality in practice. I would like to stress its two fold character: (a) contemplative and (b) active.
a) This study does not claim to treat fully the entire world-outlook of the Jainas, but is guided rather by one underlying intention, namely, that of giving an introduction to human spirituality by way of Jaina spirituality. It does not present the Jaina way of life as the model for all human life or for monastic existence, but introduces us to the grand themes of the human quest for perfection from the Jaina perspective. I see this book as being an initiation to spiritual life and as such I advise people to read it. It is, certainly, a mine of information and cannot avoid descriptions, divisions and subdivisions so dear to scholastics of every age and in particular to the Jainas. We must not forget that in initiating us into the spiritual world of the Sadhvis this study must pass on to us all the knowledge that they possess. I believe that the Jaina ascetics themselves can learn much from this lucid account which is based on the major texts of the tradition and imparts the quintessence of the doctrine without falling into a proliferation of dull secondary classifications that are sometimes found in works of this sort.
The author has endeavoured to introduce us into the Jaina spiritual world through history, iconography, geography, description of the