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Word, Thought and Deed must bear full concordance' and He exhorted that 'Do unto others as you would do unto you.' Live and let live' was his homily. Love, compassion, fearlessness, fortitude, moral awareness and universal goodness were his prescriptions for our perverseness and morbidity. He said afrail mind with broken images and languid energy with devitalised and split personality cannot store up clear-cut ideas and wisdom and, therefore, He entreated us to awake, arise and unify the individuality with universality. The Lord disdained pessimism and defeatism. Perceptively, He said 'ye have crossed the great ocean. Why do you falter when so near the shore ? Hurry to get to the otherside. Be not careless even for a while. True, sinners will always suffer from eternal perdition and the virtuous will resuscitate like the phoenix. He commanded that supremacy does not lie in birth but in the code of conduct and, therefore, by acts. one becomes a Brahmin or a Kstriya or a Vaishya or a Sudra. To do away with the fragmented thoughts, deeds and actions; it is imperative that our internal and external life should be identified. The key to self-realisation lies in your self-consciouness, as your character is the first religion, the first penance and the first knowledge. Forgive and be polite. Revere others, regulate your desires with a collective moral force, for 'he who follows forgiveness, contentment and simplicity and politeness, which are the gates to religion, breeds love and happiness for all. The Lord has urged that 'live and think of the present' because that past is dead and the future, unborn. Ethics and psychology of Jainism is wide and deep-it is a cure for the malignant disease we are suffering from. Jainism is not passive, nor is retirement from the challenges that we invariably face in the struggle of life. It alerts us, for the moments are treacherous. The wise should, therefore, seeek Truth and keep amity with all creatures.' Mahavira always advised us to choose the right path with prudence and wisdom.
It is needless to repeat that in the present times the well-knit human family is under dissolution, brotherhood is dead, moral tenets trampled. Impersonality and anonymity have taken the place of human ties. Self-centredness and racist arrogance reign supreme. Visions that create harmony and rapport are no more in sight. Rancour and hatred with a violent temper has made us estranged with anomie and alienation. The psychic and the social states are depraved. There is a breakdown of normative structure of individual and society. What prevails is a state of anarchy, social disorder and cultural confusion with higher rates of crime, suicides, drug-addiction, deviant life-styles and disruptive anti-social behaviours with personal demoralisation and psychic disintegration with feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, rootlessness and isolation. There is a complete loss of the sense of moral involvement, purpose and attachment. We demonstrate apathy, distrust, aggression and
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