Unknown Pilgrims

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

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The Unknown Pilgrims
tradition and, more especially, of an experience lived out day by day. We are offered here a harmonious compendium which, taking a vast mass of documents on the spititual life of a thousands-of-years old religious tradition, assigns each to its proper place and renders them intelligible to the reader.
In a word, this book is a valuable source of information and the indices help us to find our way around. The imparting of information, however, is neither the chief aim of this study nor, in my opinion, its principal worth. Its object is rather to initiate into spiritual life - and I say initiate advisedly, because one knows that in spritual life one advances by starting afrest each day. The fact that the world-view here portrayed may appear strange to quite a few readers - or even somewhat exotic - serves only to enhance its interest in an age when many spiritual traditions appear exhausted or powerless to attract those who are inured to the oftentimes routine points of view of their own traditions. Jaina spirituality at its deepest presents itself in a highly particular light. I might add that quite often in its traditional garb it too seems unacceptable, but is there anybody who is not interested in self-mastery, equanimity, harmony with the whole of reality, truthfulness and deep peace, whether in spite of adverse circumstances or even as a challenge to such circumstances?
To be sure, this study is not a manual of perfection; it does not aspire to teach us lessons nor to take the place of a genuine spiritual master, but in an age when such masters are so few and far between and when the influence of indoctrination through the mass media is so poweful, a detailed account of Jaina spirituality may well become a source of inspiration or a stimulant in circles which hitherto have not known this tradition. It is at this point that the task of the reader commences, for such an undertaking is outside the scope and intention of the study itself. My part, I feel, is to indicate the importance of this task.
I would like to lay further stress on this point. The modern technological age is characterised, from the sociological point of view by the myth of labour. Every person must have a job. Labour has become a necessity and in several countries a right and a duty, at least theoretically. Now this job, whether it be physical or intellectual, is regarded as an activity which takes place in the external world. Here,