Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

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

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. I
India's tolerance of other faiths has resulted in the weakening of her political power. Indians are not even today intolerant of other creeds; but the political consequences are to be set down to the account of the proselytizing zeal of alien faiths which seek to strengthen their political interests by multiplication of converts. India in the past has effected the solution of religious differences by pinning ther in their respective spheres of influence as spiritual forces and I am convinced that the solution of her present-day problems can be achieved if political lables cease to be put on the difference of faith - religious, philosophical and intellectual. Nowadays politics has turned out to be the most dominating influence in India. I wish
spirit of toleration should also prevail in the arena of active politics. The philosophy of murder and violence which is regarded as a legitimate weapon of defence and offence by the Naxalites must be quashed and no quarter should be shown to the perpetrators of these orgies of violence. As we have said the religion is a living spiritual force. It is a prerogative of a man which distinguishes him from brutes. If one forswears religion he will revert to the level of brutes. If politics and religion be kept apart and not allowed to overstep their respective jurisdiction, religion will have no reason to be persecuted. It is intriguing that churches are now functioning in cominunist Russia. The impulse to worship is an ineradicable instinct. Buddhism and Jainism have no place for personal God and therefore rationally speaking cannot lend countenance to ritualistic worship. But the prophets of the Jaina religion are worshiped by laymen as gods. In the Buddhist church the Buddha and Bodhisatvas are receiving worship with a vengeance. Poets have sung the glory of sexual love and the sufferings and sacrifices undergone by lovers. But the self-inflicted torments and ascetic self-mortification cast the sufferings of human love into the shade. It is the source of strength and inspiration for the common man and woman and the more drastic are the measures employed for its suppression, it returns and recoils with far greater intensity and redoubled vigour. Religion is a formative principle in man's character and carries him to the apex of perfection. A true religion does not encourage obscurantism and the quest of truth is its key-note, its alpha and omega. Science and philosophy are bound to be its allies and not opponents as misguided people are prone to think.
1. dharmo hi teşām adhiko višego
dharmeņa hināḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ.