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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
Such is the main teaching of Jainism, and it is obvious that it has nothing in common with any of those systems of religion which engender or encourage superstition. The path to nirvana, according to Jainism, consists in Right Belief, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct.
On its practical side, Jainism is fully calculated to enable every one however lowly, or vicious, to attain to the highest Ideal. It at once converts a vicious doer of evil into a respected citizen ; changes the latter into a saint, and later transforms the saint himself into a God ! In the daily duties of a Jaina layman stress is laid on self-denial, study and the giving of suitable gifts of food, medicine, education, and protection to the persecuted. The saint cultivates active love for all living beings, and controls his activities in all respects, that is, mental, physical and vocal, to avoid causing harm to any one, including even small insects and the lowly ant.
It only remains to consider the influence of Jainism on civilization. Some people seem to possess what may be described as an unholy dread of religion on the ground that it would be destructive of civilization. This fear is, however, quite unfounded, and confined to those who have no idea of the great Ideal of the soul, and whose conception of being does not embrace the life beyond the grave. Let us not confound civilization with sensualism, refined or gross. The true significance of civilization means nothing if not the culture of the soul, on lines which are compatible with its steady progress both here and in the life or lives after death. Sensualism, however much it might be refined, is only calculated to destroy the finer instincts of the soul. making it negative, and consequently foredooming it to the torments of hell and future undesirable incarnations, as brutes and beasts. The ancients were by no means deficient in the knowledge of things and sciences which have contributed towards the building up of what we boast of as our modern civilization, but they also knew that the things which appeal to the senses only lead to the degeneration of the soul, and wisely refrained from cultivating, beyond certain useful limits, the arts and sciences which tend to fatten the body at the cost of the spiritual nourishment of the soul. The one most marked feature of distinction between man and
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