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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
ought to be familiar with the fact that its composition and language are deliberately so worded as to mislead the 'swine'class, and that the sense of its doctrines and dogmas could not be understood except under instruction from specially qualified teachers. If any one is interested in this part of the subject I would recommend to him at least one of my recent pamphlets whose title is a sufficient index to its subjectmatter–The Glimpses of A Hidden Science in Original Christian Teachings.
Such are the reasons that have stood in the way of the doctrine of loving one's neighbour. Today the great Message that I have to give you from Jainism will furnish a complete explanation of the doctrine of LOVE and will, if accepted, enable us to live in peace with our fellow-beings, as we did in India for untold millenniums in the past, until there was an invasion from the West a little less than a thousand years ago. It is no part of my discourse today to take you through the Indian History or to explain why the western invasion was successful against a great peaceful nation. I will merely remark here, in passing, that the reason was that people had about that time come to disregard the rule of Love and were divided and cut up amongst themselves, so that there was no real opposition to the invading hordes. As a matter of fact, Jainism is not opposed to fighting altogether ; though it is opposed to fighting in all cases except in self-defence. If you are attacked you must defend yourself; but you should not attack any peaceful individual or community yourself. The reason will become quite clear if you take the case of an object of one's love going mad all at once and attacking, with destructive weapons, whomsoever he chances to encounter. It is obvious that if you do not disarm him on account of a false sense of love, you will be directly acting as the enemy of all those whom he will destroy. Under such circumstances if he has to be killed, in the process of disarming, there is no blame in the killer.
To come to the explanation of the doctrine of Love, it is pointed out by Jainism that every action affects the doer just as much as the being in regard to whom it is performed. Nay, it is conceivable that the latter may escape the effect of
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