There have been twenty-four Tirthankaras or prophets of the Jain religion. The first one was Lord Rishabh and the twenty-fourth one was Lord Mahavir. Contemporary Jainism has Lord Mahavir’s pronouncements as the basis. They include some of the principles enunciated by the twenty-third Tirthankara Lord Parsva also.
Lord Mahavir preached his doctrine after attaining omniscience. He propounded Religion by giving central importance to the soul. For him, caste, creed and colour were not significant. Religion or Religion came to acquire a comprehensive scope by upholding the principle that casteism is not real.
Treating Religion and sect as two separate things reinforced the basic unity of Religion. There can be a plurality of sects but there can be no plurality of Religion. True Religion consists in subduing attachment and hatred. It is the same for everyone and for all times and all places.
Lord Mahavir gives us the anekanta Philosophy (non-absolutism) to look at the world. It is a widely used metaphysical concept and is an important method in the quest for truth. According to this theory, you cannot arrive at the entire truth with the help of sense perceptions because senses have their limitations- they can at best arrive at partial truth. Besides, there are as many facets of truth as there are ideas. Therefore, before declaring that a particular idea is false, one must try to discover its latent fragment of truth. This humble but comprehensive viewpoint of the Jain Religion regarding the quest for truth is enough to give it the status of a world religion.
Once Acharya Tulsi was camping in Hissar (Haryana). It was a summer afternoon. Suddenly Kaka Kalelkar emerged as if from nowhere. The Acharya wondered how Kaka had come without any prior information. The latter said I was sitting in my office in Delhi thinking about anekanta. While doing so I felt very unhappy about the inactivity of the followers of the Jain Religion. People of all religions are trying to turn their religions into world religions. But the Jains are totally inactive on this front. They have a great philosophy like the anekanta, which qualifies as a world religion, and yet they are least bothered about it. I was distressed by it. I could not contain my grief and it explains why I have come here in this scorching heat.
Kaka Kalelkar’s complaint did not merely have a tinge of grief; it also had a lot of truth. The Jain Religion is a fit candidate for being a world religion. For it supports human unity, explains religion from a non-sectarian angle and concedes partial truth in the doctrines of all other sects.
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