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THE JAINA DOCTRINE Namîh sri Vardhamana-e nirdhutakalilâtmane
Sálokánama trilokânáma yada-vidyâ darpanayate ! Tr.-I bow to Sri Vardhamana Mahavira who has washed off the
impurities of karmic filth from His Soul, (and] In Whose Perception scintillate the three Worlds and the infinity
of Space, as in a mirror ! Mr. President, Brethren and Sisters, or, as you say in the West, ladies and gentlemen :
I am very pleased to have this opportunity of discoursing on the Jaina doctrine to the present distinguished company of the great French people, who are noted for their keen intellectualism, and I thank this great Association of the Friends of the Culture of the East, and especially its Hon. Secretary and the Joint Secretary, Mlle. Gadet and Mlle. Boundmann, for arranging for the present lecture. You remember that I offered salutation to the Holy Tirthamkara Mahavira at the very commencement of my lecture. The reason of this is that we the Jainas always offer obeisance to the Tirthamkara, who is the ideal of Perfection for ourselves, at the commencement of a religious lecture or discourse, to purify the internal and the external atmosphere from passion, prejudice and other like causes of error and falsehood. The Tirthamkara is the most perfect of men. He has attained to the purity of spiritual life, and become a God. He is Omniscient and enjoys unexcelled happiness. The Jainas will not follow any one who is not omniscient, or who has motives of his own to serve still left in him. T'he Tirthamkara is both Omniscient and devoid of personal motives and considerations. It is obvious that the word of one whose knowledge is not perfect or who has his own interests to serve even in respect of a small matter cannot be depended upon. Consciously or unconsciously such a person is sure to mislead his followers somewhere or other ! Mahavira, the last of the twenty-four Tirthamkaras who appeared in the present cycle of time, was the proper Teacher, because He was all-knowing
* A lecture delivered in Paris before the Association des Amis de l'Orient on 28th November, 1926.
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