Book Title: Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 4 Author(s): R P Poddar Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa MujjaffarpurPage 85
________________ 76 Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 4 The ethical teachings of Hinduism and Christianity are related to their conceptions of salvation. In Hinduism, the various forms of conduct that are prescribed are thought of most usually as helping the Soul on its way to the attainment of deliverance. In Christianity on the other hand, the moral, life is just a matter of God's commandment. Jesus nowhere teaches that through the active doing of good works merit is acquired by which one may earn salvation on the other hand, Hinduism admits that ethics is the pathway to higher spiritual life. Since the ethics of Christianity is entirely based on the commandments of God, it leaves no scope for freedom of will. The freedom of will is the greatest postulate of morality. Commandments clash will the freedom of will. Logically speaking it hardly leaves scope for ethics. Moreover, in the Christian drama of redemption, God's love as grace plays a dominant role. So the doctrine of grace implies a complete surrender. It too obliterates freedom of will and establishes omnipotence of God. It leaves no scope for self-effort. It blurrs the distinction between good and evil, Saint and Sinner because God's love will fall equally to both Sinner and the Saint. Human beings are treated as creature and God as creater. Man is a Sinner and God is redeemer. It thus breeds fatalism and negative attitude, complete dependence, it seems to me, is extremely painful thing in Christianity. God's love redeems very easily and there is no scope for struggle and upliftment. On the contrary, Hindu sm provides ample scope for moral struggle by which alone all character is formed. I fail to understand now the ethics of love which is central to Christianity has been incorporated in the first two great Commandments of the New Testament. The great Commandment demands of everyone the total love of God and the love of one's neighbour according to the measure of man's natural self-affirmation. If love, however pure it may be, is emotion, how can it be demanded ? We cannot demand them of ourselves. If we try, something artificial is produced. Love, intentionally produced, shows indifference in perversion. This means, love as an emotion cannot be commanded. Either the ethics of love is misnomer or the great Commandment is meaningless. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
1 ... 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288