Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 179

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. i
form, such as cognitive, moral, economic, political, aesthetic and religious values. Perry has characterized this method as 'historical' classification (General Theory of Value, 1954, p. 694). All these groups are found, on analysis, to have a religious base. Both the logician who finds truth to consist in the right or obligatory jugment and the pragmatist who finds it to consist in the prudent or useful judgment are evidently using ethical conceptions. Ethics again refers beyond itself to religion when it regards salvation as a supermoral value. The employment of ethical concepts is proved necessary in formulating a programme of economic reform or in dealing with current economic problems. The claim of the humanists that art is the supreme human achievement is disputed by the humanitarians who regard compassion as the highest value, which approximates the Jaina saint's principle of non-injury to life (ahimsa). The great works of art, including literary compositions, were also inspired by religious themes in ancient times. The social and political values have been found by us to be based on or influenced by religious ideals. Dharma thus, which is an ethicoreligious concept, is the source of all values- a fact which has found a powerful expression in the following proclamation of the Mahābhārata (Svargarohanaparva, 5.49) with which we conclude our paper :
ürdhvabähur viraumyeşa na ca kaścicchṛrņoti me. dharmad arthaśca kamaśca sa kimartham na sevyate.
"I cry with arm uplifted, yet none heedeth. From righteousness (dharma) flow forth wealth and pleasures. Why then do ye not follow righteousness ?"