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A PEEP BEHIND THE VEIL OF KARMA*
SISTERS AND BRETHREN,
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I now pass on to a consideration of the main part of my subject.
Religion is derived from re, back, and ligo, to bind, and means a binding back to. But a binding back to what? Some one perhaps may say to God, but the mind wants to know why it should take the trouble of binding itself back to God? Who is this God to whom it should bind itself, and why? Might not one say in reply: 'I find it more agreeable to eat and drink and enjoy other bodily pleasures which the world affords, than follow religion and renounce all the joys which I can extract from my surroundings. Surely this is a rational argument, and religion has got to meet it in order to sus tain its claim.
Religion takes the objector at his own word, and asks him as to the nature of the joy which he claims to derive from the world. Let us take an instance to analyse the philosophy of the pleasures of the world. Suppose there is a dainty dish of which I am very fond and which, when I partake of it, gives me immense satisfaction. The question is: Is the pleasure, the satisfaction, or the joy, which I derive from partaking it, in the thing, that is, the dish, or elsewhere? When I analyse my feelings I am compelled to hold that the 'dish' itself cannot be the source of joy, since I do not enjoy it on a full stomach, nor when unwell. I also notice that what one man likes does not please everybody, for instance, the pan, which the Indian taste considers agreeable, is an abomination to the majority of Europeans. I now ask myself as to the why of these differences. If the food is the source of pleasure, why is it that it does not give pleasure at all times alike? Again, why is it that some of us find that utterly unpalatable which is a source of pleasure to others? When I turn the problem in my mind in all its bearings, I find that it is not in the
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* The abridged text of an address read at the Syadavada Mahavidyalaya Anniversary at Kashi,
110
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