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ADVICE TO YOUNG JAINAS
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4. general practical knowledge of the world including expert
scientific familiarity with the particular department or departments of life with which one happens to be chiefly concerned.
Of these four principal factors of efficiency, the first will enable us to hold our own against brute force; the second is the very foundation and source of all knowledge, including all the numerous specialised departments of crafts and arts and all other forms of learning falling under the fourth head; and the third is the most indispensable requisite for true excellence and greatness in every walk of life, be it spiritual or material.
As you know well the Jainas have always been noted in the past for their unrivalled excellence in all things to which they applied their hand; but then they did not marry in their childhood, nor when unable to support a family; nor did they live on harmful irritating foods and condiments, e.g., chillies, 'acids' and the like. Our forefathers had also a great respect for the softer sex, and the Jaina tradition has made us familiar with the lives of a great many fair ones noted for their learning and wisdom. But if the term Jaina was a synonym in the past for all that is most excellent and best, it was because the Jainas had made it so by their excellent living. If we would rise to the eminence attained by our glorious ancestors in the past, we should get out of the ungainly 'cattledom ’ - slovenly boorish manners, thoughtless stupid actions, dirty habits, e.g., spitting anywhere and everywhere, and the like which has come over us. But this can only be achieved by the curbing of desires and the practising of self-denial. Self-denial, it will be seen, is the true satyagraha and the key to success; and it will never fail. Going on strike, or standing idle, irritatingly, to obstruct progress, may be non-co-operation, but it is not self-training for efficiency.
Shall self-denial lead us to power ? Yes, it will! How ? By making us efficient in every way and respected on all hands ! On the other hand, can you, in these days of soulless statesmanship, expect aught but Amritsar horrors and white-washing reports from and through impotent satyagrahi mobs ? The advocates of the brute force, might-is-right
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