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WHAT JAINISM OFFERS TO THE WORLD
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and which must be surmounted if our present civilization is to endure. This is the threat of war which has been for mankind a sort of undulant fever of increasing malevolence which now threatens his very existence. Man stands on the brink of a precipice of his own devising.
"If world war should come again it is certain that most that we value will be destroyed, hundreds of millions will die and the surface of the earth be so despoiled that a recovery may take a million years.
"The banning of weapons of mass destruction offers no solution, for any nation facing defeat abandons all scruples and uses every weapon which could decimate the enemy. Excuses can always be found for the use of any diabolical weapon in retaliation".
The world itself looks as though it is on the verge of complete destruction. Man with the help of his scientific knowledge has rolled the globe and placed it on the jaws of death. In the light of this situation, what is the solution that Jainism can offer to avoid war and establish permanent peace ? Jainism has been teaching that soul or atman is the only precious thing in the whole world. Nothing is comparable to it. The scientist himself who has discovered so many wonderful things was able to do so only because of his own soul which is, in other words, his knowledge. The Jaina conception of soul and knowledge being identical is analogous to Einstein's theory of matter and energy being equivalent, which is again the teaching of Jaina metaphysics. Where there is knowledge there is soul; and where there is soul there is knowledge. The unique nature of soul and all its wonderful qualities have been taught to the world by the great teachers. Lord Mahāvīra emphasized the supreme value of soul as a thing which must be protected and developed at any cost. Man should not only care for the welfare and advancement of his soul but also help the souls of all sentient beings by giving them protection and by helping them to march on the path of salvation. He who loses his soul loses everything. Jesus Christ who came five centuries later than Mahāvīra also drew the attention of mankind to the value and importance of atman or soul. "What shall it profit a man", he asks, "if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul ?" The pious Christians who live in America, Russia and other countries where the deadly weapons are being manufactured may as well ask their own countrymen, "What shall we gain if we get supremacy of the earth and lose our own souls ?" Unfortunately there will be no getting the supremacy of the earth also, since the atom bombs
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