What is Jainism

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
filling the interior with Life and Light. The results attained may be summed up as follows:
(1) all whole scriptures have been explained, or at least have been shown to be explainable, leaving no unintelligible residue to clash with the established truth;
(2) all inconsistencies and differences have been harmonized, or at least shown to be capable of being harmonized, between different scriptures, and the different books, or parts of books, of the same creed;
(3) the opposition of scientific rationalism has been broken up;
(4) a consistent, honourable and practical doctrine has been established which aims at and is intended to secure the highest benefits for men, and the grace and joy of life for all living beings, including those in the lower grades of existence;
(5) and last but not the least of all, a lasting and abiding agreement, which is the real guarantee of eternal friendship, has been established, without denying, or in any way restricting, the legitimate scope, aspiration and function of any of the parties.
There remains one question to be dealt with: What reliance can you place on fragments and bits thus put together? The answer may be given by another question: How is it that you get a complete philosophical system out of fragments and bits? Suppose you discovered a number of bits of a torn up letter in your waste paper basket, and on piecing them together you found yourself in possession of a complete document: would you reject it merely because it was composed of fragments? This is precisely the case with mystical teaching. In many instances these so-called bits are complete and lucid enough in themselves, and, like the fragments of a torn up document, possess a peculiarity of shape and form, which at once points to the whole article and to their proper places in it. They alone really count in mystic composition; for in the absence of the light they throw and the metaphysical basis they furnish for the doctrinal teaching, it will be impossible to make anything like head or tail out of the stuff of which the mystic's books are composed.
May the day speedily dawn and approach near when these ideals shall become realizable by all men !