World Problems And Jain Ethics

Author(s): Beni Prasad
Publisher: Beni Prasad

Page 21

tions. One may keep wealth and commodities to satisfy one's requirements but should not lose oneself in the pursuit of material gain. At the same time, one should rise above prejudices, jealousies, greed, vanity, fear, hatred, susceptibility etc.
If this Anuvrata were followed, it would prevent that ruthless and lustful competition for wealth and empire which is the bane of the present age and is responsible for its gravest ills. The attitude of mind which it inculcates is perhaps more necessary today than ever before. It is the negation of sordid, all-absorbing materialism. Science has multiplied production and scattered superfluities here and there. Modern industry and commerce have fostered growth of large towns where life is lived not only in great hurry but also on an artificial plane. Men are caught up in a vast network of impersonal forces which seem to defy understanding. They succumb to psychological maladies, nervous break. down, partial or complete, which is one of the most tragic phenomena of the present age. The battle of life, that is, the higher life, has become very difficult and can be fought only with that attitude of stoicism which the fifth Anuvrata stresses. From slightly different point of view, this Anuvrata may be described as the right sense of proportion, a perception of the true, scale of values.